El Salvador is conducting mass trials of thousands of suspected gang members, many of whom have spent years in prison but only now being charged

On Monday a group of detainees alleged to be members of the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha [MS-13] appeared in court via video-link, charged collectively with thousands of murders

The Attorney General’s Office said 486 suspected MS-13 members were on trial for 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides

MS-13 is charged with the crime of rebellion ‘because they sought to… establish a parallel state,’ El Salvador’s Attorney General said

Defendants include the founders of’ MS-13, members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, and program coordinators across the country

They’ve been charged with a range of crimes, including the killing of 87 people in a single weekend in March 2022

MS-13 and the rival Barrio 18 gang operate drug trafficking rings and extortion rackets across Central America, President Nayib Bukele has accused the gangs of controlling 80 percent of Salvadoran territory

Bukele declared a ‘war’ on gangs and launched an anti-gang crackdown, sweeping arrest of suspected gang members led to detention of 91,000

486 alleged members of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) went on trial collectively in El Salvador on Monday, April 20. In the mass trials, anonymous judges hand down one-size-fits-all punishments to large groups of defendants following the proceedings via video-link from prison

El Salvador’s justice ministry on Monday began a mass trial for nearly 500 alleged gang members of the powerful Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as [MS-13], accused of thousands of murders.
El Salvador is conducting mass trials of thousands of suspected gang members, many of whom have spent years in prison without charge or visitation rights, in continuation pursuant of President Nayib Bukele’s anti-gang crackdown since he war on gangs, which he said controlled 80 per cent of Salvadoran territory.
Detailing the collective proceedings, the Attorney General’s Office said the 486 suspected MS-13 members were on trial for 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides.
The arraigned suspects include ‘members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, program coordinators from across the country, and founders of’ MS-13, according to the ministry.
The range of charges includes includes the killing of 87 people in a single weekend in March 2022.
In the wake of the massacre President Bukele, declared a ‘war’ on gangs.
A state from the Attorney General’s Office said MS-13 is charged with the crime of rebellion ‘because they sought to… establish a parallel state.’
The prosecutors declared, ‘We are going to put them on trial, and we are going to settle a historic debt,’ .

Detained Members of Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS-13 gang, attend an open hearing by El Salvador prosecutors against 486 members of the gang, who are accused of more than 47,000 crimes, including 29,000 murders, committed between 2012 and 2022

President Bukele has accused the gangs of murdering 200,000 people over three decades, including about 80,000 who disappeared without trace. Bukele in 2022 imposed a state of emergency, which has been used to arrest more than 91,000 suspected gang members, including thousands of people who were later declared innocent.
The campaign, which made Bukele hugely popular, has resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime, turning El Salvador from one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries to one of its safest.
Civil Rights groups, however, have denounced gross human rights abuses, including a lack of due process for the detainees, reports of torture and more than 500 deaths in prison.
The fates of the detainees are now being decided in mass trials, with anonymous judges handing down one-size-fits-all punishments to large groups of defendants following proceedings where detainees make their court appearance from prison, via video-link
MS-13 and the rival Barrio 18 gang operate drug trafficking rings and extortion rackets across Central America.
The Trump administration has declared the two groups – among others – as terrorist organizations, designations it has used in part to justify deadly military strikes on alleged drug-running boats.

President Bukele in 2022 imposed a state of emergency, arresting more than 91,000 suspected gang members. While thousands were later declared innocent accompanied by complaints of rights abuse, there has been a dramatic decrease in crime rates

The two gangs were born among Salvadoran youth on the streets of Los Angeles and then spread back to El Salvador, where they terrorized the population for more than three decades.
At the opening of the trial, the judge stated that armed groups had disturbed ‘the peace of the Salvadoran population and the security of the state’ for decades, and would be tried ‘with the full force of the law.’
According to state prosecutors, there is ‘ample evidence to request the maximum sentences’ against the defendants. However the state has not specified whether that ‘maximum’ implies life imprisonment.