El Salvador Commences Mass Trial of Nearly 500 Accused MS-13 Gang Members
A court in El Salvador has formally opened a collective trial for 486 suspected gang members, The Guardian reports.
The judicial proceedings, which began on Tuesday, represent one of the largest mass prosecutions initiated under President Nayib Bukele’s aggressive and highly controversial crackdown on organised crime.
State prosecutors are levelling immense accusations against the alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) syndicate. The charges encompass a staggering 47,000 criminal acts allegedly committed between 2012 and 2022.
This dark decade includes a notorious weekend that stands as the country’s most lethal period of violence since its civil war. The extensive list of charges against the defendants includes homicide, femicide, extortion and arms trafficking.
This unprecedented legal event is occurring under a heavily renewed state of emergency that was first implemented in 2022. Empowered by these measures, Salvadoran security forces have arrested over 91,500 individuals. To handle the sheer volume of detainees, the national Congress passed specific legislation allowing for mass judicial hearings.
However, the strategy has drawn fierce criticism from international observers. Human rights organisations have consistently warned that these collective trials severely compromise due process and prevent defendants from securing adequate legal counsel.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a statement on Tuesday echoing these alarms and urging the Salvadoran government to abandon the state of emergency as a law enforcement tool.
The nearly 500 individuals currently standing trial are scattered across five different detention centres. These include Cecot, the infamous maximum-security mega-prison inaugurated by the Bukele administration in 2023, which has rapidly become the ultimate symbol of the nation’s zero-tolerance policy.
In the courtroom, prosecutors have introduced a vast array of evidence including autopsies, ballistic reports and witness accounts. The state is pushing for the absolute maximum penalties available, meaning a single defendant convicted on multiple counts could face up to 245 years behind bars.
Notably, the group of defendants includes veteran gang leaders who are believed to have been heavily involved in the controversial 2012–2014 truce orchestrated during the presidency of Mauricio Funes.
Despite international backlash, the Bukele administration maintains that its emergency powers have been an overwhelming success for public safety. Government statistics report that the intense crackdown drove the national homicide rate down to just 1.3 per 100,000 people last year, a dramatic decrease from 7.8 in 2022.
