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Images via Ruhi Cenet, Joe HaTTab, Nick Shirley and Timmy Karter

YouTube content creators have earned more than 200 million views on videos of their visits to El Salvador’s CECOT prison

Both the Trump and Bukele administrations have also used social media as propaganda celebrating the megaprison

Written by Jack Winstanley

Research contributions from Payton Armstrong

Published

Since 2024, at least five YouTube content creators have been granted access to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, the megaprison to which the Trump administration began sending immigrants last month.

The resulting YouTube videos have been viewed over 200 million times, and at least one creator has appeared on Fox News four times to discuss what he saw while filming. He suggested during one appearance that “if the United States was smart, they would do something just like this as well.”

Both President Donald Trump’s administration and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s government have used social media to push propaganda films celebrating the megaprison as well, despite concerns of potential human rights abuses at the site, and right-wing media have also praised the facility.

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  • The Trump administration is deporting immigrants to El Salvador's CECOT prison without due process

  • Bukele opened CECOT in 2023, earning praise from right-wing media figures

    In early 2023, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele opened the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, as part of his campaign against criminal gangs operating within the country. Since then, experts have raised concerns about the prison’s harsh conditions and “massive and arbitrary deprivation of liberty,” including the extreme levels of isolation experienced by the prisoners. One visiting filmmaker called it a “tropical gulag” and an expert described it as “the Salvadoran version of going to Siberia.” 

    But right-wing media figures have celebrated the facility and suggested that the United States should create similar infrastructure within the country, praising Bukele’s authoritarianism (“This is my kind of authority, baby”) and suggesting that a megaprison would help with America’s “serious crime problem.”

  • In March 2025, the Trump administration began deporting individuals to CECOT

    During an official visit in February 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Bukele had offered to accept deportees from the U.S., including “dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they're U.S. citizens or legal residents.” The following month, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to send hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador to be imprisoned at CECOT. 

    Despite ongoing legal challenges to the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify deporting individuals to El Salvador with little to no due process, Trump stated during a press briefing alongside Bukele that he is exploring detaining U.S. citizens and imprisoning them in El Salvador as well. 

  • YouTubers have earned millions of views on content after visiting CECOT

  • Mexican YouTuber Luisito Comunica posted a tour of the facility, thanking Bukele’s press secretary for granting him access

    • In Mexican YouTuber Lusito Comunica’s video, which has been viewed over 56 million times, he says in Spanish that touring the facility “gives a certain feeling of empowerment to a simple citizen like me.” Comunica also spoke positively of the conditions within the facility, stating, “It is easy to suddenly be moved, to touch your heart, to say, 'Wow, what harsh abuse inside the prison.' But when you find out the inhumane atrocities they committed, it makes sense.” [YouTube, 2/7/24, accessed 4/23/25]
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  • Right-leaning American YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a tour of CECOT and appeared on Fox News at least 4 times to discuss his visit

    • Pro-Trump YouTuber Nick Shirley’s video, which features a tour of CECOT and Shirley interacting with a group of individuals imprisoned there, has earned over 5.7 million views. Prior to touring CECOT, Shirley had made videos criticizing the Biden administration’s immigration policy and focusing on illegal immigration into the U.S. [YouTube, 7/26/24, accessed 4/22/25; Reuters, 6/13/24]
    • The following week, Fox News’ Jesse Watters hosted Shirley to discuss his tour, introducing him as an “investigative journalist” and showing portions of the YouTube video. Shirley told Watters that “if the United States was smart, they would do something just like this as well, to make sure that no criminal gets treated like a normal person.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/2/24]
    • Following the Trump administration’s decision to deport individuals to El Salvador, Shirley appeared on Fox at least another three times. On Fox & Friends Weekend, Shirley stated that he worked “for months and months” to get permission to tour the facility, and he ended his appearance by cheering, “Let’s go, El Salvador.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/7/25; Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 3/29/25; Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 3/28/25]
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  • Greek UK-based YouTuber Timmy Karter posted his tour of CECOT, earning over 3.7 million views

    • While discussing concerns over human rights violations at CECOT, U.K.-based YouTuber Karter remarked that it “sounds a bit hypocrisy, because — let’s be honest — U.S.A. is running Guantanamo.” Karter also argued that foreign media outlets should “criticize your own prisons first” before judging CECOT. [YouTube, 10/21/24, accessed 4/22/25]
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  • UAE-based YouTuber Joe Hattab posted a tour of CECOT, earning over 49 million views

    • United Arab Emirates-based YouTuber Joe Hattab said in his video that the Salvadoran government “invited media outlets to broadcast the scene [at CECOT] to the entire world, serving as a deterrent to anyone who dares break the law.” The description for Hattab’s video celebrates the prison, noting, “Thanks to this prison the country of El Salvador is the safest country in the western hemisphere.” [YouTube, 2/2/25, accessed 4/22/25]
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  • Turkish YouTuber Ruhi Cenat also posted a video tour, earning over 95 million views

    • While approaching the facility, someone in the car with Turkish YouTuber Ruhi Cenat can be heard saying that they “have permission from the presidency” to visit the facility. [YouTube, 2/9/24; accessed 4/22/25]
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  • The Trump and Bukele administrations have leveraged social media to promote CECOT

  • In March, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the megaprison and posted a video thanking Bukele

    In the video, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the facility “one of the tools in our tool kit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.” 

    While several GOP lawmakers have traveled to the megaprison, congressional Republicans and Salvadoran officials have denied requests from Democratic lawmakers to visit the facility.

  • Bukele’s government has also made ample use of social media to promote CECOT and its wider crackdown on criminal gangs

    Dramatically shot videos showing detainees being marched off planes by armed military and police units, having their heads shaved, and being hurried into cells have been posted to Bukele’s social media accounts in an effort to promote his “no-tolerance policy on crime,” according to The Washington Post.

    After then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) visited CECOT in July 2024, Bukele shared to social media a segment of Gaetz’s speech on the House floor in which he discussed his newly formed “El Salvador Caucus” and praised Bukele’s “visionary leadership.” Bukele’s account also shared a video of Gaetz’s visit to the prison in which Gaetz praised “the good ideas in El Salvador” and noted that “there is a lot more discipline in this prison than we see in a lot of the prisons in the United States.” 

    Bukele’s government has used a team of paid internet “trolls” and other allied social media accounts to push propaganda and attack dissent. One account, according to The Associated Press, has posted videos of supposed gang members committing violent crimes, followed by pro-Bukele messaging.