Colombia's Petro says El Salvador mega-prison is 'concentration camp'

Colombia's President, Gustavo Petro, describes a huge new mega-prison designed to house 40,000 alleged gang members in El Salvador as a "concentration camp."

Some 63,000 presumed gang members have been rounded up since El Salvador President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency months ago, allowing arrests without warrants in the violence-plagued country.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro lashed out at his counterpart in El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for having built a new high security prison in Tecoluca that has received 2,000 suspected gang members.

"The president of El Salvador is proud because he reduced the homicide rate by subduing the gangs that today are in those prisons,” he said.

At an event at a university, Petro compared the prison to a “concentration camp.”

“On social media, you can see the concentration camp in El Salvador full of young people, thousands and thousands in prison. It gives one chills,” Petro said.

Two thousand suspected gang members were moved to the facility, the largest prison in Latin America.

The prison, called the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, was built to hold 40,000 prisoners targeted in Bukele´s “war against gangs,” a move that has been strongly criticised by human rights organisations which say the arrests constitute a serious violation of human rights.

According to polls, 95% of the population supports this security strategy, which has lowered the homicide rate in the country.