El Salvador’s government has sharply criticised a Paris Fashion Week show by Mexican-American designer Willy Chavarría for featuring outfits resembling the prison-issue uniforms used in the country’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT). AFP reported that the former Ralph Lauren designer staged models kneeling in white T-shirts and shorts, mirroring imagery associated with the mega-prison’s inmates.

According to Dazed, Chavarria opened his June 27 show with a tribute to immigrants and US citizens facing ICE detention and potential deportation to facilities in countries including El Salvador, as the shaved-headed models walked the runway "dressed in baggy white tees and loose shorts." The gesture comes as President Donald Trump intensifies his crackdown on illegal migration.

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele quickly responded on social media, quipping that his government could “ship them all to Paris” if France authorised it—an assertion his press office later portrayed as a principled stand against “glorifying criminality.” Yet, the tone of the reaction underlines the government’s sensitivity to how its tough-on-gangs narrative is depicted abroad.

CECOT, a mega jail established in early 2023 under Bukele’s security initiatives, has capacity for 40,000 inmates but housed approximately 14,500 by mid-2024 and over 105,000 across the system by December 2023. Built as part of a broader strategy to reduce gang violence, the facility operates under a state of emergency first declared in March 2022. This legal framework permits arrests without warrants and has resulted in roughly 86,000 detentions—among them over 3,000 minors—according to rights groups and official sources.

Although homicides have declined significantly, numerous international observers, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Human Rights First, have flagged patterns of arbitrary arrests, overcrowding, torture, and due-process violations.

Notably, CECOT also houses around 252 Venezuelan migrants deported under the Trump administration’s wartime Alien Enemies Act. These individuals were transferred to El Salvador without court hearings under a controversial bilateral agreement and are accused of gang affiliation, claims their lawyers dispute. Venezuela’s attorney-general has condemned their treatment as “human trafficking,” calling for their release. Reports describe substandard conditions: severe overcrowding, inadequate food, limited legal access, and instances of physical and psychological harm. 

Several Salvadoran police officers, speaking anonymously, have confirmed the existence of arrest quotas and fabricated cases aimed at meeting targets to boost profits, further raising questions over the rule of law. The Catholic Bishops of El Salvador have also warned that the country risks becoming an “international prison” if deportation policies continue unchecked.