El Salvador holds mass trial for 486 alleged members of notorious MS-13 gang
The Guardian • • world
Key Points:
- A Salvadoran court has begun a mass trial of 486 alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13), accused of over 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including homicide, femicide, extortion, and arms trafficking.
- The trial is part of President Nayib Bukele’s controversial crackdown on gang violence under a state of emergency, which has led to over 91,500 detentions and the use of mass trials authorized by Congress.
- Human rights organizations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have criticized the state of emergency and collective prosecutions, citing violations of due process, legal defense rights, and extended administrative detention.
- Defendants are held in multiple prisons, including Cecot, a maximum-security facility symbolizing the government’s zero-tolerance approach, with prosecutors seeking maximum sentences that could total up to 245 years per defendant.
- Among the accused are alleged gang leaders involved in a 2012-2014 truce between the government and gangs during former President Mauricio Funes’s administration.
