El Salvador · San Vicente Department · Tecoluca
Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT)
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT)
Step-by-step guidance using the El Salvador system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Inaugurated January 2023 — the largest prison in the Americas by design capacity. Built to hold alleged gang members detained under the post-2022 State of Exception.
Capacity
40,000
Current population
14,500
Occupancy
36%
Year opened
2023
Operational
Facility profile
Operator
Dirección General de Centros Penales
Population held
male
Opened
2023
Region
San Vicente Department
Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
Eight pavilions of cages holding up to 100 inmates each. Lights on 24 hours; no outdoor recreation. Two daily meals eaten without utensils.
Visiting
No visits permitted. Inmates have no contact with family members. No legal visits reported for general population.
Mailing
No incoming or outgoing mail permitted.
Practical info
Government does not publish inmate registry; families typically locate detainees via the National Civil Police inquiry system.
Known issues
Human rights groups document deaths in custody and lack of due process. No independent monitoring access granted since 2023 opening.
Notable inmates
Alleged senior MS-13 and Barrio 18 members; specific names not publicly disclosed.
Contact & address
No public contact details available.
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 24/30
- Structural flags
- 5/15
- Death signals
- 5/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · 2 oversight reports in the last 5 years
- · Substantial documented known-issues record
- · In-custody-death signal in sources
Trend over time
Population and occupancy by year. Source: official corrections statistics + oversight reports.
Population held
Occupancy %
Compared to other facilities in El Salvador
17 peersHigher risk than 0% of peer facilities in El Salvador.
Reports
- Cristosal — One Year of Exception22 Apr 2024
Documents 235 deaths in custody during the State of Exception across El Salvador's prison system; no families have been informed of cause of death or location of remains.
- Human Rights Watch4 Apr 2023
Conditions inside CECOT, based on government-released video, satisfy the definition of incommunicado detention. No legal access, no family contact, no daylight in cells.
Data completeness
92%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- Human Rights Watch — El Salvador
- Cristosal abuse documentation
- Human Rights Watch — World Report — Human Rights Watch
- Cristosal — Cristosal
- Amnesty International — country pages — Amnesty International
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.