‘Cemetery of the living dead’: Venezuelans recall 125 days in notorious El Salvador prison

Musician Arturo Suarez, 34, poses in his family home in the El Valle barrio of Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28, 2025. The sign says “Welcome, Arturo”. Photograph: Andrea Hernández Briceño/The Guardian

Arturo Suárez struggles to pinpoint the worst moment of his incarceration inside a prison the warden boasted was “a cemetery of the living dead”.

Was it the day inmates became so exasperated at being beaten by guards that they threatened to hang themselves with their sheets? “The only weapon we had was our own lives,” recalled the Venezuelan former detainee.