This story is taken from VICE magazine, v29n2: THE REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL ISSUE. To subscribe to four print issues each year, click here.

“Are you having a good time?” hollered the director of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, while leading a gaggle of YouTubers on a tour through the supermax prison. A resounding “Yes!” came back from the content creators who were visiting for the day, snapping selfies with the inmates they described as “the most dangerous people in the world.”

Known as CECOT, the complex has a total capacity of 40,000, with the current population estimated to be around a third of that. Not that the people in charge are encouraging inmates to stretch out and make themselves comfortable. Every block contains 32 cells, each stuffed with up to 156 souls granted pe

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