Fernando Suncín

CECOT has opened its doors to a small number of journalists and human rights advocates. They were given the opportunity to speak with an inmate. One asked him: “Are you okay? Are they treating you fairly? Tell me if not, I can help you.” Surely they extended that same pity, that same offer of help to the families of those he murdered? NGOs love to hate CECOT, a prison built to contain the worst kind of evil. Men who murdered dozens. Men who sacrificed children to the devil. Men who slaughtered fathers in front of their sons and daughters in front of their mothers. Men who now receive three meals a day, instant access to healthcare, and the undivided attention of organizations that don’t have a care for their victims. We had a chance to meet an inmate as well. He published a video of himself and his “homeboys” tying up 11 people by their hands and feet, lining them up face down on the ground, and hacking them into pieces with machetes while they cried in pain. As the warden recounted his crimes, the man was smiling. He was ordered to put on his face mask. He then continued smiling serenely behind his mask. NGOs love to hate CECOT for three simple reasons: → It’s famous, and they want in on the attention. → It’s the symbol of a paradigm shift they despise. → It’s safe. You are never going to see them visit gang-controlled prisons elsewhere on the continent, because they would get killed. But at CECOT, they’re safe. And they’re safe to smile in the face of the warden who invited them and then stab him in the back with a smear campaign the following day. Every time they try to free murderers on a technicality, every time they ask a killer if his bunk is too hard or his food is too bland, they spit on the graves of the innocent. And if they could, they would unlock the cells and turn El Salvador back into an open-air prison with 6 million inmates, all while they philosophize from afar about the poor, underprivileged Third World.

Se fue una de las voces más emblemáticas del fútbol argentino. Marcelo Araujo narró generaciones enteras de partidos y momentos inolvidables. Su relato quedará para siempre en la memoria del fútbol. QEPD.