El Salvador inmates crammed together in prison lockdown

Defying social distancing recommendations due to the coronavirus, authorities in El Salvador crammed prisoners – albeit some wearing maks – tightly together in prison yards while searching their cells over the weekend.

President Nayib Bukele ordered the crackdown after more than 20 people were murdered in the country Friday and intelligence suggested the orders came from imprisoned gang leaders.

The lockdown came amid fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus in Latin America’s notoriously overcrowded, unruly prisons, threatening to turn them into an inferno.

The Puente Alto prison in downtown Santiago, Chile, had the largest of Latin America’s prison virus outbreaks so far, with more than 300 reported cases. The prison’s 1,100 inmates are terrified. Social distancing is hard to practice in jail.

“They are all in contact with each other,” said prison nurse Ximena Graniffo.

(Credit: Al Jazeera)