El Salvador takes swipe at Paris fashion show over tribute to mega-prison for gangs
President Nayib Bukele said the event attempted to ‘glorify criminality’ as he offered to send prisoners to France
El Salvador’s government on Saturday criticised a Paris Fashion Week show that made references to inmates at the country’s CECOT mega-prison, with President Nayib Bukele joking that he could send prisoners to France.
At Mexican-American designer Willy Chavarria’s show in Paris on Friday, the white T-shirts and shorts worn by his models invoked the uniforms worn by inmates at the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT).
Bukele had the maximum-security prison built to hold gang members arrested in his war against organised crime.
Also imprisoned at CECOT are 252 Venezuelans deported from the United States and accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
“We’re ready to ship them all to Paris whenever we get the green light from the French government,” Bukele wrote in response to a social media post that said Chavarria was paying tribute to CECOT prisoners.
The president’s press secretariat said Bukele’s post showed his “firm stance against the attempt to glorify criminality”.