7News Spotlight: June 9

On 7NEWS Spotlight Liam Bartlett will take viewers inside El Salvador’s brutal prison system.

Barlett said: “It’s a confronting argument whether or not this level of incarceration solves the root cause of violent crime.

“However, we are grateful to the Salvadoran government for allowing us, as the first non-Spanish-speaking television crew, to access this prison and show our audience the results.”

Also Charles Wooley witnesses the rare phenomenon of South Australia’s Lake Eyre, coming to life in a spectacular event that only occurs once every two decades.

This episode screens at a later time in Melbourne and Adelaide.

For years, El Salvador has been plagued by rampant street violence, drug cartels and murders, earning its reputation as one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Once notorious for the highest daily murder rate worldwide, it now holds the record for the highest incarceration rate.

The Centre for Confinement and Terrorism (CECOT) has become a symbol of President Nayib Bukele’s war against gangs. Since its establishment in 2023, it has housed tens of thousands of El Salvador’s worst criminals and gang leaders.

With exclusive access, 7NEWS Spotlight’s cameras go behind the bars and come face-to-face with the inmates inside the world’s toughest prison, witnessing first hand the inhumane conditions that have human rights organisations around the world in uproar.

As Bartlett sits down with former FBI special agent Jeff Wood, he will issue a stark warning to Australia: the infiltration of notorious gangs on Australian soil is not a distant threat but a chilling reality.

Sydney Brisbane and Perth: 8.45pm on Channel 7
Melbourne and Adelaide: 11.00pm on Channel 7