More than 240 members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (or MS-13) gang have been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison in El Salvador.
The Central American country’s attorney general’s office said in a social media post that 248 members of the gang had received “exemplary sentences” for 42 homicides, 42 disappearances and other crimes.
The statement did not specify a date for the verdict or whether the defendants were tried collectively.
One man, Marvin Abel Hernandez Palacios, was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison, and 10 others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 463 to 958 years, the post said. The attorney general’s office said the crimes were committed between 2014 and 2022.
As of March 2022, the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele A state of emergency has been in place to crack down on criminal gangs, allowing arrests to be made without a warrant.
According to official sources, more than 90,000 people have been detained and about 8,000 have been released after being acquitted.
Bukele’s anti-gang campaign has reduced homicides in the country to record lows, but rights groups have accused security forces of committing abuses.
According to the Salvadoran government, MS-13 and another gang, Barrio 18causing approximately 200,000 deaths over the past three decades.
The two gangs once controlled about 80% of the country, and El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
The attorney general’s office said the groups extorted “victims who owned businesses, demanding varying amounts of money in exchange for not harming them.”
“Some have had to close their businesses due to fear of the threat,” it added.
The MS-13 gang was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants fleeing civil war in their home country.
The brutal gang has since spread to Guatemala and Honduras, making the region one of the most violent in the world. Its violent grip on Central America is one of the factors driving thousands of migrants to flee to the United States.
Earlier this year, the United States designated MS-13 a terrorist organization, with President Trump calling it “probably the meanest, worst gang in the world” and “an evil bunch of people. They’re sick and deranged.”
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