All language subtitles for Inside the Worlds Mega Prison.1080p.HDTV.AV1.AAC.MVGroup.Forum

This road that we're on from the
capital, San Salvador, to the world's

prison, housing the world's most
dangerous prisoners. This is the last

that most of these guys will have made.

Especially what I'm wondering is, if
this prison and the way it's run is

something that we would like to see back
in Britain, or if it's so harsh, its

rules are so unrelenting and bleak, That
it's a step, maybe more than a step,

too far.

What's that to provide? I'm thinking
just coming... It's coming to here.

Wow, it's big.

It is actually quite intimidating.

Holy cow.

It's full on.

El Salvador was a killing field during
its civil war.

Now there's a fresh horror.

El Salvador used to be a battlefield
where three gangs fought for supremacy.

Is this where guys were lined up and
shot? Yes.

So this is an execution wall.

Every 10 yards, you go to a haunted spot
where men were killed.

Under emergency measures, more than 20
,000 people have been arrested.

It was an unprecedented crackdown on
gangs by El Salvador's authoritarian

president, Nayib Bukele.

Some of them say that we threatened
thousands.

I like to say that we actually liberated
millions.

J .F., one hell of a president.

These guys are serious, serious
gangsters.

Look at them now.

This man's killed 12 people.

He tortured them and killed them. They
were kids, pregnant women.

He killed 30 people. Yeah.

The country's new mega prison is the
largest in Latin America, spaced for 40

,000.

I mean, this is like no other prison
I've ever seen. It's profoundly

We are here.

Because there are some guys that they
were able to escape.

You haven't got them all?

Yeah.

But with almost 2 % of the entire
population now behind bars, some say the

in human rights is very high.

It's a heck of a price, isn't it?

And I just wonder if anything like this
could happen in the UK.

I'm in El Salvador, a country in Central
America that recently was seen as the

murder capital of the world.

Just ten years ago, it was ravaged by
gang violence, and it had a murder rate

times higher than the UK.

Today, those figures have plummeted.
It's now one of the safest countries in

Latin America, and statistically, it's
even safer than the United States.

The one thing I was able to tell my
family before I got on a plane here was

I was coming to a safe country. This is
not the El Salvador of five years ago,

ten years ago. It's not.

It's the safest country in Central
America.

But what price have they paid to attain
that?

And is it a price you can really live
with?

It's under the leadership of their self
-proclaimed dictator, President Nayib

Bukele, that El Salvador has been
transformed.

Thousands of gang members have been
labeled as terrorists and locked up.

Tomorrow is the start of my visit to the
prison that is the centerpiece of his

war on gangs.

The next morning, we follow government
officials who strictly control access

inside the prison.

We're not being naive here. It doesn't
matter what country on the planet you

live in.

We all live with a degree of government
spin.

I'm going to do my best to look past
that.

We're driving 90 minutes outside of the
capital, San Salvador, to the prison

that's gained a reputation as the most
controversial in the world.

I mean, it's incredibly strict, but they
say it's not cruel.

They say there's no torture, there's no
violence.

It seems somewhat improbable that
there's no violence in a prison housing

of thousands of incredibly dexterous
criminals.

And now we've...

Seemingly got armed guards about every,
what, 50, 60 yards, stationed on both

sides of the road.

It is actually quite intimidating to see
so many, so many armed guards.

I mean, I guess we must have passed 50
on the way here in about the space of

half a mile, three -quarters of a mile.

Located at the foot of the San Vicente
volcano, this is the centre for the

confinement of terrorism.

otherwise known as Secot.

Opened in 2023, it was built to hold up
to 40 ,000 violent gang members.

After months of negotiations with the
authorities, we are set to be the first

British documentary film crew inside the
prison.

We've been working with Alejandro, a
local translator, to gain access.

What do you think?

I'm taken aback at the amount of
security. I didn't expect there'd be so

armed soldiers all the way back to the
main road.

I'm taken through the state -of -the
-art security measures by prison

Bellamino Garcia.

He says it's impossible to smuggle
anything in.

Has anyone ever managed to smuggle a
phone in? No, nadie.

Drugs?

Nada.

Can he come to England, please?

Even if mobile phones could be smuggled
in,

they wouldn't work.

The whole of the prison is protected by
a kind of a dome, an electronic bubble,

which stops any phone signals getting in
or getting out.

I begin to notice that many of the
guards are covering their faces.

Even my local film crew insist on
wearing masks.

It says a lot about the sense of fear
that still lingers, even with the gang

members firmly locked up.

Why do all security people have face
masks on?

Why doesn't he wear a mask?

We're going now to the cells, to the
actual prison. Yes.

We're going to get in the bus. The bus?
Yes.

I can't conceive of a jail in the UK so
big that you have to get into a bus

once you've got inside the prison walls.

This sprawling complex is the size of 32
football pitches.

I count that as the fourth, no, the
fifth steel gate that we've gone

And this is the sixth double steel gate
we've gone through.

Finally. We arrive at one of the eight
prison blocks.

Inside each one, there are 32 cells
housing the inmates.

Are those the cells?

Sí. OK, they look like huge aircraft
hangars.

But what will it be like to be in the
same room as 3 ,000 highly violent men

such close quarters?

I'm apprehensive.

Buenas noches.

Buenas noches.

It's hard to grasp the scale of it.

In front of me are multiple cells, each
with over 100 prisoners staring back at

me.

It's more of a shock than I expected.

Whatever the reason that these men are
here,

We accept that they're very, very
dangerous criminals.

This is a terrible sight.

It plucks at the heart.

These lights stay on all night.

24 hours.

Why?

Inside this giant hangar, there is a low
hum, but it's eerily quiet.

Why aren't any of these men calling out?

Nobody has a book.

or a newspaper, or a screen of any kind.

There's nothing.

Is that strictly necessary?

They can have a Bible, but that's it.

Everyone here, all of these men, are
going to die here.

None of them are ever coming out.

So this is their present and their
future.

And they're deaf.

I see it.

I've never seen anything like this in my
entire life.

And it's going to take a while to
process it.

Because the reality of seeing 3 ,000 men

in cells, on metal bunks, with nothing
to do at all,

is one hell of a thing to see.

Suddenly,

I'm being taken to a side room.

This is where they talk to the lawyers?
Yes.

Some have criticized this legal process,
with government footage showing mass

trials of almost 500 prisoners taking
place via video link.

I'm being shown one of the smaller in
-house virtual courtrooms.

Señor director told us that no one's
ever been released from here.

So what's the point of these meetings?

I wonder if these

men feel they're getting a fair hearing.

Is it possible for me to speak to these
men?

No. All the men in the cells outside?

No.

Why can't I even say hello or goodbye to
these men? Part of the protocol.

It's the protocol.

OK, it's the unbreakable rule. The
director is clearly keen to defend the

against my questions on the inmates'
conditions.

So he wants to make emphasis on the
human rights. They have food, they have

basic needs, they have health, and they
continue all the legal processes.

I still feel the need to press him on
why they must be so harsh.

And he doesn't accept that many people
who would support life in prison for the

crimes that these men have committed
would see having the lights on 24 -7,

even dimming them, and having nothing at
all to do in the cell, apart from the

Bible. That's not remotely cruel.

A necessary cruelty.

The pace suddenly quickens and we're
being hurried around.

Perhaps asking about conditions here is
pushing too far.

That he can understand why it can be
interpreted as something cruel, like

Then, suddenly, we're asked to stop
filming.

I think I may have overstepped the mark.

Are we done then?

We're done.

I'm in El Salvador at the world's most
controversial prison, Secot.

Full of the most dangerous and violent
men in the country, these murderers,

rapists and child killers will spend the
rest of their lives here.

It's been shocking to see the prisoners
in conditions that have been criticised

by human rights groups.

And my questioning led to some tension.

I think you need to talk to the
producers here about that.

Sorry, sorry.

We're done.

And now we've been told we must leave.

We haven't come here to make a judgment.

But I have to ask difficult questions,
because if I ask soft questions,

people at home go, oh,

he's not objective.

It's clear the prison director thinks
that I haven't grasped how effective his

CICOP regime is as a deterrent to the
gangs.

I'm still hoping to see much more of the
prison.

But for now, we've been shown the door.

In 2015, there were over 6 ,500 murders
in El Salvador.

Ten years later, that figure had dropped
to 82.

Before I return to Seacott, I'm going to
visit a former gang stronghold.

Could a once violent no -go zone really
be safe now for outsiders?

Right now we're going to La Campanera,
part of the hood that is extremely

dangerous. I've never been, personally.

I've never been there.

La Campanera is on the outskirts of San
Salvador, and it was once ruled by the

Barrio 18 gang.

It was their battle with bitter rivals,
MS -13, that led to so much bloodshed.

It's thought that the two gangs are
responsible for the deaths of at least

,000 people.

Formed in the 1980s in Los Angeles, the
gangs grew from the men who'd fled the

growing Civil War.

When hostilities ended in 1992, criminal
elements were deported from the US back

here.

Amidst the chaos of a country emerging
from war, the gangs flourished.

Through the threat of extreme violence,
they controlled vast territories and

they ran extortion rackets. worth
millions.

It was in places like this that
residents lived under constant

extortion and violence.

I walk through the tight alleyways.

Round every corner, there's a spot with
a grim history.

So basically here, the people from the
neighbourhood, one family member, the

was a cop and the kid was involved in
the gang. They called them here and they

killed them here.

Every ten yards.

You go to a haunted spot, don't you?
Yes. You go to a haunted spot where men

were killed.

It was in areas like this that the gangs
would recruit poor and at -risk

teenagers.

So this is where they would do the
initiation.

So if you were part of the 18 gang, you
would have to, if you were new, you

would have to kill people here.

The abandoned houses that recently
belonged to gang members are being

Graffiti that mark their territory is
being painted over so that any sign of

gang's rule is erased.

Here you can see there's some bullet
holes.

These are big bullet holes. Is this
where guys were lined up and shot?

Yes. So this is an execution wall?

Yeah.

It's kind of important to realise that
all those guys that we've seen in the

centre, we've seen behind bars in the
prison, this was their patch.

This was their fiefdom, and this is
where they did a lot of the killing.

Alejandro is suddenly nervous, and he
hurries me along.

I think we should walk more, because
instead of shooting, we just... I think

it's better just... Yeah.

Then he explains why.

Something to note is that...

Even though right now they're taking
control back, there are still family

members or gang members still here who
are not happy because they have their

husband, their kid, whoever.

Gang families are still living here.

So maybe it's not quite as rosy as they
would like to present it as. But having

said that, this is a part of San
Salvador that would have been insane.

For people like me, people like my crew
to come for any reason at all at any

time of day just a few years ago, we
probably would have been murdered just

being here.

That's not over -dramatising it, that's
how it was.

Despite the tension, the gang's
stranglehold on this area has clearly

but broken.

So, will what I've learned here change
the way that I see Seacott itself?

When I return to the prison...

It's in the early hours of the morning.

I'm not sure if I'll be welcomed back,
and on our return, we are stopped at a

checkpoint.

Okay, so this is going to be the first
check. They're going to check all the

cars and check everything.

This is much, much stricter than
yesterday.

We did annoy them a bit.

We drive back up the road, still lined
with armed guards.

I mean, the very concept of some kind of
rescue squad of

gangsters coming here to spring their
mates is just preposterous.

Getting over those walls, getting past
these guys.

Where is he at?

Nice to see you again.

Ciao, Richard.

Buon dia. Ciao. Buon dia.

I meet up again with the prison's
director, and once more we go

through the strict security.

They seem to have recovered their good
humour from yesterday,

so I don't think we did any lasting
damage.

Still have a few more faint exchanges to
go there.

It's approaching 4am, and the prisoners
are due to be woken up.

Most of the guys are asleep still, so we
have to be quiet.

Quite a few have covered their faces, I
think.

They've been woken up.

So how much sleep have they had?

Just in case

somebody slipped through the bars in the
night.

OK.

What's bizarre is to see how these
brutal gang members meekly line up to

side, and wait to be told what to do.

What strikes me is the absolute
obedience of all of these men. They do

what they're told. I can't imagine a
prison in the UK where prisoners would

this subservient.

Why are they so obedient?

You've got to remember that most of
these guys are serious.

Serious gangsters who have a huge amount
of control and power in the outside

world. Look at them now.

And while the counting goes on in this
module here, come back to the first one.

They haven't moved.

They're still in exactly the same
position. They wait for orders to do

everything.

With all 32 cells counted, I'm told that
this is when the prisoners wash.

I feel slightly bad about watching this
because, you know,

obviously getting naked and there's no
screen or privacy at any time.

I assume the water is cold.

This morning schedule is what many of
these men have been following for the

three years.

In 2023, the government first made a
huge public display of holding the gang

members at Seacott.

Built in just seven months amid
President Bukele's aggressive crackdown,

suspects were arrested.

It's all made Bukele, who once called
himself the world's coolest dictator,

extremely popular. His approval ratings
still top 90%.

In the UK, it's hard to understand the
huge impact these caged gang members

had.

Inside the cells, sworn enemies from the
rival gangs Barrio 18 and MS -13 have

been placed together.

It's through these tattoo designs that
they indicate which gang they're a part

of.

And you could be in here simply because
you had one of these tattoos.

And being completely honest, does he see
these men as being subhuman?

It's chilling to think that just having
certain tattoos could leave you behind

these bars for life.

But it's clear that they are an
intrinsic part of gang identity,

loyalty, rank, criminal history, or even
acting as a stark warning to others.

It's a very potent message, isn't it?
Yes.

They might as well be wearing a shirt
that says, I will kill you. Exactly.

They are satanic. They worship the
devil.

Do you think that this man still in his
heart follows Satan?

Yes.

I've been shocked by the number of face
tattoos on display.

At the beginning, the face tattoos were
because of a punishment.

If they would not complete a task or a
mission.

They would tattoo their logos in the
head, in the face.

But then they changed and became a
symbol.

It's clear.

There are men here that, together, are
responsible for thousands of murders.

A lot of homicide.

A lot. A lot of killings. A lot of
killings. How many?

Twelve. This man's killed 12 people.

He was part of the capture, the kidnap,
torture and killing of four members of

the army.

And he tortured them and killed them.

I noticed that the tattoo on his chest.

Apparently he says innocent.

He found that innocent.

OK.

What's remarkable are the lengths of the
sentences.

So these are consecutive sentences.

They're not concurrent.

One finishes, the next one kicks in
until he dies. Yes. So he'll die here.

El Salvador abolished the death penalty
in 1983, so these men will now die here

in Seacott. And I can't help wondering
if they feel any remorse.

Mr Director, Senator Director, I'm
exchanging looks with these men.

They're looking at me and I'm looking at
them. Am I allowed to speak to them?

No. At all. No.

They don't want me to have any
interaction with the inmates.

Some of their crimes are so extreme, it
would be difficult to know what to say.

They filmed themselves committing this
horrific series of murders. Yes.

I'm about to see exactly what they're
capable of.

Holy cow.

Holy cow.

You don't want to see this.

I'm inside Secot, a maximum security
prison with a reputation for

being the toughest and most dangerous in
the world.

Home to El Salvador's criminal elite.

So they took a bus. Took a bus.

A regular bus.

filled it with gasoline, set fire to it,
and people who wanted to leave, they

would shoot them. They shot them as they
tried to escape. They were kids,

pregnant women.

Okay.

Second worker.

While Phil not being allowed to interact
with any prisoners, it's thickening to

hear their crimes.

This man was part of a gang who attacked
a group of workers fixing cables,

purely because they were in the wrong
territory.

They tie them and they throw them to a
hole, and then they start chopping them

with a machete.

Vivos. Alive.

They chopped them to death alive?
Chopped them to death with a machete.

They filmed themselves committing this
horrific series of murders?

Yes, and they released it to social
media.

But they posted it online?

Holy cow.

Holy cow.

You don't want to see this.

These are the types of people that are
here. This was their reality.

This was our reality.

It was so normalized, the violence that
we had here.

And these examples of the men in here
are the reason why Señor Director

sleeps easy in his bed at night.

Algo muy bueno. Claro que sí.

I wasn't expecting to see the video that
was posted of the machete murders.

It was the most graphic thing I've ever
seen in my life.

But I think it was important that I did
because there is no question that these

guys are dangerous and ruthless and
control this country

with the most murderous grip possibly in
modern history.

For such ruthless, sadistic killers,
it's remarkable how quiet and reserved

seem. And it makes me wonder what
punishments there are for those who do

out of line.

Any inmate that causes trouble is sent
here.

A tiny, pitch black, concrete hole.

Hold it quite firmly, just like that.

Within the depths of the prison.

The isolation cell.

And there's to go.

Holy cow.

Sorry, I'm just feeling my way to sit
down. Here we go.

Difficult.

Gangster prisoners here.

Can be banged up here about 30 days.

A month.

It's totally silent.

There is no light coming down from the
roof.

I've got the night vision camera to give
me some sense of where I am.

But basically, you'd have to grope your
way to the stone sink here.

And you'd have to grope your way to the
toilet and somehow find the bowl

that you need to flush it.

But I guess the really tough, almost
unimaginable

thing is that he could be here for a
month.

Just you.

And that's it.

The door's open.

I can't see anybody coming out of here
with a fighting spirit.

It's funny, this is the one place, this
is the one place in this jail that does

have an odor.

There's a certain odor here, I can't
really describe it.

Fear.

That would seem like freedom outside.

Boy, you would do exactly what you were
told.

Thank you.

Director Garcia claims that it's rare
that inmates are sent to solitary

confinement. Yet across the prison,
there are 96 isolation cells.

Are they no more than a deterrent? Or
are they used more than the director is

letting on?

Regardless, day -to -day life inside
Seacott is bleak.

The prisoners are granted a tiny slice
of freedom in the form of a daily

exercise class and religious worship.

They get 30 minutes a day to do this,
and it's the only time that when they're

out of their cells they're not shackled,
because obviously they couldn't

exercise if they were.

Once they've done the calisthenics,
exercise for the body, they get exercise

their morality.

And they're given preachings and
teachings from the Bible.

Which text from the Bible is he talking
about here?

Do you think this

makes any difference to them?

It's the strangest Bible class I've ever
seen.

Twenty -three and a half hours every day
are spent behind bars.

With so little to do, mealtimes become a
small mercy.

So they never eat outside the cell. They
only ever have their meals in the cell.

What's the food? What's dinner tonight?

And that's the same every night?

Every night?

That's not what you'd call a balanced
diet.

The boxes of food are all lined up
outside each cell.

Nobody eats until the command is given.

But they have to eat with their fingers?

Yes.

Like this.

Well, you do it with the... Well, you
dig it in with your tortilla, OK.

OK.

Well, I'm not going to lie.

The beans are quite tasty.

But this isn't what you'd call a
nutritious meal, is it? I mean, there's

green vegetables.

You have the protein and you have the
rice, but yes.

So doesn't that give the man vitamin
deficiencies?

At this point, no.

The director tells me that the prisoners
get around 1 ,800 calories a day.

This may, however, change in the future.

So there's been a critique about the
food that they're giving, and the answer

the president was that when chicken with
beef is available to the rest of the

country, maybe then it's going to be
possible to give it to them.

That's the answer of the president.

I see. So when the rest of the country
has recovered enough stability and

security and wealth to eat properly,
that's when the prisoners...

will get better food than this. The
people's justice.

It's perfectly edible.

There's nothing wrong with this.

But if I knew that I was only ever going
to eat this for breakfast and for

dinner for the rest of my life, this is
what you get for being a member,

an active member, of a...

homicidal gang, psychopathic gang, and
they were.

I mean, let's not pretend that we're
surrounded by decent, innocent men here.

We're not.

We're surrounded by some of the most
dangerous men on the continent here.

And we can't just shrug that off.

This is punishment on a plate.

Human rights groups report that
prisoners inside Seacott have been

inhumane conditions, citing the food as
inadequate.

But the most damning allegations came
after another world leader decided to

Seacott.

President Trump, flight to your prison.

Donald Trump and the president of El
Salvador, Nayib Bukele, met at the White

House in 2025.

Their conversation about the success of
CICOR was posted on Bukele's social

media. Mr. President, it's an honor to
have you. Do you want to stop crime and

so do we?

Sometimes they say that we're in the
first of thousands.

I like to say that we actually liberated
millions.

Jay, I have one hell of a president.

Just a few weeks before, over 200
Venezuelan men living in the USA were

by President Trump to Seacott, with the
El Salvadorian government receiving a

reported $4 .7 million in return.

The mass deportation was well
publicised, broadcast all over the

In the dead of night, a US military
plane arrived in El Salvador.

Ten men are taken away in shackles.

in footage filmed by the Salvadoran
government.

The Trump administration alleges these
are gangmen, the latest of hundreds

deported from the US.

Four months later, after negotiations
between the governments of Venezuela, El

Salvador and the US, the Venezuelan
prisoners were released.

But they now hold an extremely rare
record. They're the only people who will

ever be set free from Secot.

Their experiences were reported to human
rights groups and the world's press.

The Venezuelans claimed physical
assaults, torture and sexual violence

the prison.

They described being forced to sit on
their knees for 24 hours.

Some claim they were struck so savagely
and repeatedly that they struggled to

walk.

Allegedly, Director Garcia told them
all, as they walked into Secot, you have

arrived in hell.

The El Salvadorian government denies
allegations of torture. It maintains

the facility adheres to strict security
protocols.

President Bukele of El Salvador, he has
been so incredible.

He has been such a great ally of this
country.

Thank you.

Such a great ally.

Despite these allegations, I have been
told repeatedly that incidents inside

facility are rare.

Suddenly,

I'm rushed away.

Into a holding cell flanked by armed
guards.

Finally, I think I've been given
permission to speak with a single

Richard, you go there.

A ruthless gang member and mass
murderer, formerly known on the streets

Psycho.

I should say this is the one prisoner
I'm being allowed to talk to.

It's a notorious gang member.

So what can be there?

Before you came in here, You were king
of the world. You

could do anything.

You could have anyone killed with a snap
of your fingers.

What's it like for you to be in here?

Chicot is one of the most secure prisons
in the world.

19 watchtowers surround the 56 -acre
site.

Blocked from the outside world by nine
-metre -high walls, topped with 15 ,000

volts of three -metre electrified barbed
fence.

The very idea of escape is futile.

Let's go.

We have to go.

I'll follow you down.

After asking many times, I've finally
been given permission to speak to a

prisoner.

known as Psycho.

Although it appeared that I would talk
to him without bars between us, he has

suddenly moved at the last minute to a
holding cell for the interview.

I've been told that I have just five
minutes.

So the interview is going to be in
Spanish. I'm going to translate.

I'm told he speaks good English.

The prisoner is told that

he must speak to me in Spanish.

I suspect this is so the prison director
and the growing crowd around us can

understand every single word.

What did you do?

You killed 30 people?

Yeah.

Before you came in here, you were king
of the world.

You could do anything.

You could have anyone killed with a snap
of your fingers.

What's it like for you to be in here?

When you were killing all those people,
did you even think for a moment that

what you were doing was wrong?

You're going to be here for the rest of
your life.

You'll never come out of this place.

That's because they've decided that
you're beyond redemption.

You can never change.

Do you think you could change?

You have nothing to do in your cells
ever.

What do you talk about?

What do you miss most about your old
life?

My interview is brought to an abrupt
end.

and were promptly whisked out of the
holding cell.

There's an old cliche, isn't there?

Dead man walking.

That's how he came across to me. Dead
man walking.

Being inside Seacott is fascinating.

I'm full of conflicting thoughts.

But what I'm not quite able to get my
head around is just how calm it appears.

Rival gang members coexisting, and my
interview with a mass murderer felt

collected and composed.

It's like no other prison I've ever
seen.

Have the criminals accepted their fate,
or are they too terrified to break any

of the unrelenting rules?

They were wild animals, in a sense,
running amok.

And look at them now.

They've been brought to heel.

It's a heck of a price, isn't it?

If trouble was to break out, the
response would be crushing.

Security planning is, understandably,
paramount.

What kind of weapons are these?

Assault rifles outside.

Inside, they have something else.

And what would being hit by the rubber
do for somebody?

Bruises.

El perfil criminal del pandillero de
estos terroristas, todo es igual.

Do they ever attack each other?

Llevamos ya tres años acá con la
operatividad controlando a esos

sujetos y no ha habido ni una tan sola
agresión.

No aggressions in three years. That must
be the only prison on the planet that

hasn't had a fight in a cell.

They never, ever fight.

They never fight.

Not even a scratch.

It's difficult to imagine a prison where
inmates haven't clashed.

Perhaps all the heavy artillery, the
chains, the riot

gear. Why would you need stab -proof
vests if they never have anything that

can stab you with?

Every eventuality covered, right?

Maybe it has beaten these violent and
dangerous prisoners into submission.

Either way, it's clear that nobody
inside Seacott is ever given an inch

of leeway.

Yeah, prepare for everything, prepare
for the worst.

And hope for the best.

Secot, a mega prison in El Salvador with
a reputation for being the harshest in

the world.

It's fascinated and shocked me in equal
measure.

I've witnessed what life is like here
behind bars.

You could be here for a month.

Just you.

Almost unimaginable.

And come face to face with Seacott's
most violent and dangerous criminals.

Chop them to death alive.

Holy cow.

Holy cow.

You don't want to see this.

Brutal. Bleak.

Barren. It's unsettled me to the core.

As my time inside Seacott draws to an
end, the crew

and I are swiftly escorted from the
complex.

I've never experienced something like
that as a journalist or simply as a

being.

I've never seen other human beings like
that.

and being held in conditions like that.

And the whole thing, I must be honest,
has left me quite shaken.

It certainly casts a sharp light on the
controversy

about that prison.

A very sharp light.

I'm torn.

Peacock is an extreme experiment in
justice, which for now...

appears to be working in El Salvador.

Is this a model that other countries
around the world will be looking to

emulate?

I have a lot I still need to consider.

I've come to the former gang -run
neighborhood of Apopa, just north of San

Salvador.

With so many people now in Secot, Has
criminal control of areas like this been

totally dismantled? Or are there still
gang members at large?

I'm here to go on a military patrol with
the Minister of Defence, Rene Marino

-Monroy.

Again, we will go this way. OK, shall we
go?

I certainly wasn't expecting these many
soldiers.

I mean, you're all tooled up. You've got
a carbine in one hand, you've got a

pistol in a holster. That's not just for
show.

No.

It was his troops that flooded these
streets when the crackdown began.

We are here patrolling and we find one
guy, one bad guy.

We check the guy and if we know that
this guy is a gang member,

we call the police.

And hand him over. Yeah. So you...

the military would go in and do the hard
arrest, the hard arrest with heavy

guys, fully tooled up, as you say, and
then the police would come, take them

away, and then they'd end up in the
centre.

It's an impressive show of force, with
dozens of soldiers all around us.

It's clear lots of people feel reassured
by their presence.

Thumbs up.

You seem to be very popular. I notice a
lot of people are waving at you.

The ordinary people here.

I can see them smiling at you.

They all seem very grateful.

It's like walking down the street with a
movie star.

I can't help but wonder if there really
are gang members hiding

amongst such a grateful public.

Now that the gangs have been smashed,
why are we still not on patrol?

Why do you still need to make patrols
like this? Because there are some guys

are freer because they were able to
escape.

You haven't got them all?

Yeah. Right now it's more difficult to
capture those guys because some of them,

they don't have tattoos, for example.

Really? They look like normal people.

Do you ever think because they don't
have tattoos and they do look so normal,

you ever think sometimes you might be
arresting the wrong guys, that they're

innocent?

Got it.

It's obvious to me that many residents
feel more secure than they have for

years.

But the question remains, were the scale
and methods of the arrests...

A price worth paying.

The message from El Salvador, with its
creation of Seacock Prison, is very

clear.

all links to the country's former gang
violence and corruption.

In 2022, the same year construction
began on Seacott, the El Salvadorian

government ordered the destruction of
almost 80 tombstones belonging to gang

members.

The men destroying the graves were
criminals from some of El Salvador's

prisons.

So you can see where it's all been
smashed, can't you, here?

I've been given a small window to meet
and interview President Bukele's right

-hand man, Vice President Felix Ulloa, a
politician who's become

used to answering critical questions
about the Sikot regime.

You've won the battle.

Why is Sikot still important to maintain
the victory?

Why do you still need to keep it and
keep the prisoners in the conditions

they're kept?

Secot is kind of, you know, an icon of
El Salvador.

And it is also a way to understand
what's going on in El Salvador.

Why does it have to be so harsh? I mean,
I went there and I have to say I was

shocked. I was shocked. It was very
extreme.

Do you think you could have won that
war?

And do you think you could have kept the
victory without Secot?

I mean, I don't know why we are so
focused with Zikot. Zikot is just...

it is an extraordinary place as well.
Absolutely.

But that's for you and for people
abroad.

People are taking Zikot as an anchor to
understand El Salvador.

This is a mistaken approach.

Zikot, Zikot, Zikot. I mean, it will be
a very narrow, very, very narrow... No,

I hear you.

...vision of what is going on in El
Salvador.

Opinion is how many lives have been
saved.

You know what we are winning now?

To become a normal society.

That's it. Just to be normal. Just to
have the right to walk on the sidewalks.

Just to have the right to go and enjoy
when we're kids in the park, in the

public places.

That was impossible.

El Salvador is the safest country in the
Western Hemisphere.

And this is, you know, the paradox.

President Bukele isn't just eradicating
El Salvador's past.

He says he's building a safe and
successful future.

Most schools in the country were run by
the gangs, used as a way to control the

neighbourhoods and recruit new young
members.

Now

the

education system in areas once dominated
by the violent gangs has been

transformed. Reina Velasquez was the
head at this primary school.

During the brutal years.

Let's say a parent would call, may I
complain, they would have to call the

police and they would sit the police,
the gang members and the school.

So imagine a PTA meeting with police.

And it sounds almost unbelievable that
the school and the parents and the

were having to negotiate with the
gangsters.

Oh, si, ahora es... Somos libres. Esa es
la palabra.

Somos libres.

I know.

I know.

In just a few years El Salvador has
broken its cycle of violence.

The destruction of the criminal
chokehold on the country has transformed

of a living hell.

This fragile piece is all underpinned by
the presence of SECOT, a

drastic and severe deterrent, but,
perhaps, the only solution.

Look, it's obvious that SECOT breaches
human rights, as we currently

It's a shocking, extreme corner of
humanity.

But our Salvadorians were writhing under
the thumb of psychotic, psychopathic...

Sadists?

I wonder if sacrificing civil liberties
for the common good is something others

would ever be prepared to embrace.

The stories I've heard from ordinary El
Salvadorians, well, frankly, they froze

my blood.

And I'm sorry, but I just don't think
it's our place to lecture El Salvador.

about precisely the way that they
somehow managed to claw their way back

sanity.

To me, it seems undeniable that Seacott
rescued them from much of that

bloodshed. And it's also arguable, if
uncomfortable, that it now must continue

to protect them.

It's an inheritance from a stranger, as
good as it seems.

Some catch -gripping thrill of the
fortune. Brand new Tuesday and Wednesday

9. And based on real transcripts
surrounding the disappearance of her

Spring drama under suspicion.

Kate McCann now on 5.

Next, Trauma Room 1.