The justice system of El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele is waging an intense “war” against gangs, has sentenced dozens of members of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) to long prison terms, including a sentence exceeding a thousand years, the prosecution reported this Sunday (22).
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Since March 2022, the Salvadoran government has operated under an emergency regime which authorizes arrests without a court decision. More than 90,000 people were arrested during this period, while more than 8,000 were released due to lack of evidence, according to official data.
In a post on X, the prosecutor’s office said 248 MS-13 members were convicted of 43 homicides, 42 disappearances and other crimes. The court did not detail the date of the convictions or specify whether they were part of collective trials.
One of the gang members, classified as a “terrorist” by the United States, was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison. Ten others were sentenced to 958, 880, 745, 739, 739, 702, 639, 543, 530 and 463 years of imprisonment respectively.
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Crimes committed between 2014 and 2022 include the murder of a university student and a football player, as well as extortion and drug trafficking. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the convicts had bases in different regions of the province of La Libertad, used to plan criminal actions.
The group also extorted local merchants, demanding various sums of money, often without resorting to direct violence, the agency added.
Samuel Ramírez, leader of a movement of relatives of detainees who declare themselves innocent, told AFP that he agreed that “the law must be applied to criminals”, but he questioned whether the processes took place in compliance with legal guarantees.
— Unfortunately, until now there is no transparency in the judicial processes in El Salvador — he said. For him, the high sanctions are part of a “populist marketing strategy” in favor of Bukele.
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The president’s campaign reduced homicides to historic levels, but human rights organizations criticize the policy, denouncing abuses by security forces. Since 2022, at least 454 Salvadorans have died in state custody, according to victims’ organizations.
Despite the criticism, other governments in the region have already announced their intention to adopt similar initiatives. Recently, Bukele pledged to share his experience with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves, who is facing rising crime and plans to build a prison modeled on Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison complex, a symbol of the offensive against gangs.
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