Courts in El Salvador began conducting mass trials of imprisoned gang members on Thursday, starting with one processing nearly 500 alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang.
The trials are part of El Salvador’s ongoing crackdown on gang violence, spearheaded by recently reelected President Nayib Bukele. Thursday saw 492 suspected leaders of MS-13 on trial for over 37,400 crimes allegedly collectively committed by the accused between 2012 and 2022.
The Deputy Director of El Salvador’s Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office Max Muñoz stated on Thursday that 24 “historic leaders” of MS-13 are among the nearly 492 in the trial.
The charges, according to the Salvadoran Attorney General’s Office, include, but are not limited to: 29,416 counts of aggravated homicides, 907 disappearances of persons, and 492 counts of extortions. Other charges include arms, human, and drug trafficking, as well as terrorism.
“The investigations show that each crime committed by each gang member had to be ordered and endorsed by the ringleaders,” the Attorney General’s office wrote on social media.
Each of the 492 accused is facing a minimum sentence of at least 95 years.
“They sowed terror for decades, but they will pay for every life blindsided, for every family torn apart,” Salvadoran Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado wrote on social media.
The courts are expected to issue a sentence on Friday, according to Delgado. At press time, no sentence has been issued.
#CombateAPandillas | Las evidencias presentadas por la @FGR_SV establecen la vinculación de todos estos cabecillas con la estructura de la MS, por lo que el tribunal ha ordenado que todos sigan en prisión provisional.
La pena mínima que cada uno recibirá va desde los 95 años. pic.twitter.com/VmwcTk2phy
— Fiscalía General de la República El Salvador (@FGR_SV) February 9, 2024
Thursday’s mass trial was held via a virtual court session across each of the country’s prisons where the accused are currently being held.
Last year, the Salvadoran Congress approved reforms to the nation’s criminal code that allowed for the implementation of mass trials in the country.
Salvadoran Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro explained at the time that the reforms allow judges to process groups of more than 900 people at a time in a single hearing if they are accused of belonging to the same criminal organization.
“There is nothing similar in the history of the world to what we are facing right now,” Villatoro told AFP in July. “There are more than 900 charges per [gang clique cell] in this transitory decree.”
The reforms to the Salvadoran criminal code also allow for the Prosecutor General’s Office to not have to present individual evidence against gang members in a criminal judicial process.
El Salvador has been placed under a de-facto state of martial law since March 2022 that has been continuously renewed on a monthly basis. The decree, while restricting freedom of association rights and other civil liberties, has been used to enact a massive crackdown on the nation’s most dangerous gangs and has led to the reported “virtual disappearance” of MS-13, 18th Street, and other notoriously dangerous criminal gangs.
The ongoing gang crackdown has been instrumental in the record-high approval ratings that President Nayib Bukele has consistently boasted in recent years. Bukele was reelected for a new five-year presidential term last week after obtaining a landslide victory, despite the nation’s constitution explicitly forbidding a president from seeking reelection.
Bukele was able to run in last week’s election thanks to a legal loophole provided by the Supreme Court of Justice in 2021 – after the pro-Bukele majority in Congress replaced every justice on the bench.
The loophole, a controversial interpretation of Article 152 of the Salvadoran constitution, called for Bukele to “step down” from the presidency at a date no later than six months before the end of his current 2019-2024 term, set to end in June.
The Organization of American States (OAS) recognized Bukele’s victory this week, remarking that there are “no doubts” in Bukele’s overwhelming victory but stressing concerns over the de-facto one-party rule that Bukele’s New Ideas (NI) Party currently has in El Salvador — especially after obtaining 58 out of the nation’s 60 Congress seats.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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