60 Minutes Segment on Cecot Prison Surfaces Online After CBS Pulls Episode
A 60 Minutes segment focusing on the Cecot prison in El Salvador surfaced online after CBS News withdrew the episode from its broadcast schedule. The piece subsequently appeared on Global TV's Canadian streaming platform.
CBS stated that the segment required additional reporting and would be aired in a future broadcast. Despite the pullback, journalists Bari Weiss and Sharyn Alfonsi publicly defended the piece and its reporting.
The segment includes testimony from Venezuelan student Luis Muñoz Pinto, who described threats and his 2024 arrest during a Customs and Border Protection appointment in California, highlighting the experiences of asylum-seeking detainees.
Conditions at Cecot are portrayed as harsh and inhumane, with reports of guards beating detainees, overcrowding that has bunks stacked four high, lights remaining on 24/7, and lack of access to clean water. A 2023 US State Department report had cited torture and life-threatening conditions at the facility.
Contributions to the segment came from Juan Pappier of Human Rights Watch. The 60 Minutes piece corroborates HRW’s 81-page report that details systematic torture and reveals that about half of inmates had no criminal history, based on records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The episode describes punishment rooms such as an island where detainees are forced to kneel for 24 hours and are beaten, illustrating a pattern of punitive confinement.
The segment also touches on the political context, noting President Bukele’s meeting at the White House, and former President Donald Trump’s praise of El Salvador’s prisons. Attempts to get comments from the Department of Homeland Security and El Salvadoran officials were reportedly declined.
