Coverage of a controversial prison in El Salvador where Donald Trump has deported immigrants to was axed in what a reporter is calling ‘political reasons’.
Sharyn Alfonsi was covering El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre, known as CECOT, and spoke with prisoners who had been taken there after being deported from the United States.
The ’60 Minutes’ journalist said that despite the story being legally checked and okayed by CBS’s standards division, news chief Bari Weiss pulled the segment just hours before it was meant to air.
The investigation, which has been leaked online since, looked into abuse at CECOT of prisoners, with one inmate telling CBS the prison had widspread torture, beatings and sexual abuse.
In an email to colleauges at CBS, Alfonsi wrote: ‘Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices.
‘It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.
‘If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.’
In a statement, CBS said that the segment needed ‘additional reporting’ and claimed it will air in the future.
Weiss, the head of CBS News, defended her decision and said the story did not ‘advance the ball’.
She added that she wanted the reporters to make a ‘greater effort’ to get the Trump Administration’s point of view, despite the reporters saying they reached out multiple times and received no response.
Trump has already deported alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua to El Salvador’s mega-prison.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele previously offered to incarcerate them at CECOT, and earlier this year, Trump reinvoked the Alien Enemies Act, which was last used to intern 120,000 people of Japanese heritage, along with tens of thousands of Germans and Italians, during World War Two.
Trump accused Tren de Aragua of flooding the USA with drugs and ‘mass illegal migration’ to destabilise US democracy at the behest of the Nicolas Maduro government in Venezuela.
What is CECOT?
Bukele ordered the construction of ‘Latin America’s biggest prison’ as he launched his purge against El Salvador’s gangs – including the dreaded MS-13 and Barrio 18 – in early 2022.
It opened a year later in the town of Tecoluca, around 45 miles east of the capital San Salvador.
Able to hold 40,000 inmates – nearly half the entire UK prison population – the CECOT is made up of eight sprawling pavilions.
Its cells hold 65 to 70 prisoners each. None receive visits. There are no programs preparing them to return to society after their sentences, no workshops or educational programs. They will never see daylight again.
Prisoners sit in rows in the corridor outside their cells for the talks or are led through exercise regimens under the supervision of guards.
Bukele’s justice minister has said that those held would never return to their communities.
What do human rights advocates say?
Cristosal reported last summer that at least 261 people had died in El Salvador’s prisons during the gang crackdown.
The group and others have cited cases of abuse, torture and lack of medical attention.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
