A late night visit in the heart of El Salvador. Telemundo cameras are given rare access to Latin America's largest prison. Inside this mega prison, you'll find some of El Salvador's most dangerous gang members packed into massive cells, towers of bunk bits, and what looks like bird cages.

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It's a source of pride for President Nayib Bukele that almost two years ago declined declared a war on crime, a detention center the size of seven football stadiums with capacity to hold 40,000 prisoners, the largest of its kind in Latin America. Known as the Center for Terrorism Confinement, it opened its doors in 2023 after the government declared a state of emergency, the move limiting civil rights and allowing massive arrest of tens of thousands of gang members.

.. The director says the detaunees have to sleep on hard surfaces to avoid giving them mattresses that could be used to hide objects.

Their diet consists of simple meals that repeat every day.

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It's all part of the President's tough stance on crime that some say solidified his re-election over the weekend, winning in a landslide earning 70% of the vote. The government says the measures are working and the homicide rate has now dropped to 2.4%. This after just years ago, El Salvador was considered the most dangerous country in Central America. But the massive arrests have come with criticism. Under the current law, children as young as 12 can now be charged as adults. Also, mass trials can be held. And international watch groups say innocent people are being caught in the raids. Many sounding the alarm last year, calling for transparency.

We don't know if those who are being detained have committed a crime or are just there because they were tattooed and were in the wrong face at the wrong time.

And for those who end up here, the director says there is no separation even between rival gangs, all sleeping in the same large cells with no rights to visitation. The dark side to the radical change that brought peace to the streets of a nation.

Guad Van Agens joins us tonight from Miami. Guad, incredible access there by our partners at Telemundo inside this prison complex. But sometimes, I know you've done these embeds before when you go in, you're not allowed to be everywhere. Is there any concern about what we weren't able to see inside these prisons?

Well, Tom, we've heard from a lot of these human rights watch groups. Amnesty International shared a Court recently that they say includes details that come from former detainees. These detainees saying that there are a lack of essential services, unhealthy conditions that can contribute to the spread of disease, even saying that some debts of former prisoners could have been linked to these unhealthy conditions. Now, the President has admitted that these are harsh measures, but he's also said, Tom, that when the gangs ruled the streets of El Salvador, they did not take human rights into consideration. The President has gone as far as asking rights groups to come to El Salvador and take the gang members out of the country to a place where he says they can look after their human rights so you can see the stance that's being taken by the President, standing firm by his decisions, Tom..

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