This one is going to be rough – hence the first one for me to post. There is a video story about CECOT that shows it is even worse than we thought it was. All the pictures that came out of there, unfortunately, including the ICE Barbie video in front of a cell packed with prisoners, are wrong enough. (Let’s not go there on her, or ranting will ensue.) We’ve seen how they were transported.

We see them sitting on the floor and being stuffed, one by one, into a cell that barely has any room for one person to stand. But it’s much worse than we thought it was. And CBS America doesn’t have the stones to play it. We’re lucky that it was streamed in Canada for a brief two hours, so people grabbed it, and it started spreading. CBS America is trying to scrub the video from the internet, citing copyright violations. But this makes me want to scream even more than CECOT did already. Heads up – this one is long. With thanks to CBC News Canada:

This is what we know about CECOT, the brutal mega-prison at the heart of the recent 60 Minutes controversy. It’s the prison where the Trump admin has sent hundreds without trial, which has no visitation, recreation, or education. The Terrorism Confinement Centre, known by its Spanish acronym CECOT, is the Salvadoran mega-prison at the centre of a recent controversy at CBS’s news flagship 60 Minutes.

A segment about the prison that took a critical look at the Trump administration’s deportation policies was pulled hours before it was set to air, angering CBS employees and raising questions about U.S. government influence over the news division. But the prison complex was controversial long before 60 Minutes got involved, and even before the U.S. had sent hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants there without trial.

There’s the setup, so to speak. That’s our overview of this place. The US paid $6 million to President Nayib Bukele, although supposedly it actually goes to the country, in return for a “dumping ground” for our “criminals”. Please go read the entire article from CBC News Canada, because otherwise, this would be a novel. This place is unbelievable, except that it’s there and we’ve seen it, and raged about it.

Opened in February 2023 as the centrepiece of President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gangs, the prison is believed to be the largest in the Americas. The 23-hectare complex is about 70 kilometres east of the capital, San Salvador, and can hold 40,000 inmates. The facility, which cost $115 million US, is part of Bukele’s highly popular hardline security policy, which has resulted in a sharp drop in homicides. Calling himself the world’s “coolest dictator,” Bukele, 44, declared a state of emergency in March 2022 that saw tens of thousands arrested, including alleged gang members.

Forty THOUSAND prisoners. That’s hard to comprehend because the pictures and videos that get released are “slicked up”. We only know of Kristi Gnome and her T&A  video “warning”, which is even more slickly produced. But we cannot *see* what it’s actually like in there except for that small amount. That’s bad enough, but if you start to think about it, yes, we have our imaginations, but it’s even worse than we can imagine. Forty thousand. Lawd have mercy.

Cells are windowless, and bunks are bare and metal. Each cell has two sinks and two toilets with no privacy. Cameras and guards are everywhere. A report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in September last year expressed concerns about overcrowding in CECOT, citing a study that found inmates had an average 0.6 square metres of space, below international standards, which vary from three to six metres of space.

In the 60 Minutes segment, which was briefly available in Canada, two men who were deported to CECOT reported torture, beatings, and abuse. One Venezuelan said he was punished with sexual abuse and solitary confinement. Another was a college student who said guards beat him and knocked out a tooth upon arrival. “When you get there, you already know you’re in hell. You don’t need anyone to tell you,” he said.

Y’know, this hurts. Even animals get treated better than this. And we are sending people there, men who aren’t even criminals. The only “criminal” case they had was for daring to sneak into America for a better life for themselves and their families. Kristi Gnome and Donnie are sending people there. Ice Barbie did a spotlight for a warning inside this prison. She has to know what it’s like. But they are sending people anyhow. And they just disappear into hell. Please read the article. Only a small section was discussed here. Please.

Friends, I know everyone begs you for money, especially around the holidays. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula

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3 COMMENTS

  1. 47 is raising terrorists for the future. Even if none of these folks get released from CECOT – those that are family, etc. there will be some that will want retribution. F8CK TRUMP.

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