Mass murder trial in El Salvador for almost 500 alleged MS-13 members

Crime Mass murder trial in El Salvador for almost 500 alleged MS-13 members April 21, 2026 / 7:30 AM EDT / AFP Add CBS News on Google Nearly 490 alleged members of the powerful Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), including several alleged leaders, went on trial collectively in El Salvador on Monday, 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 visiting rights, as part of the anti-gang crackdown of iron-fisted President Nayib Bukele.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. The country's court system said the trial included "members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, program coordinators from across the country, and founders of" MS-13. Salvadoran authorities accuse the group of a range of crimes, including the killing of 87 people in a single weekend in March 2022. In the wake of those killings, Bukele, a close ally of President Trump, declared a "war" on gangs, which he said controlled 80 percent of Salvadoran territory. MS-13 is charged with the crime of rebellion "because they sought to ... establish a parallel state," the Attorney General's Office said. "We are going to put them on trial, and we are going to settle a historic debt," prosecutors said. Bukele in 2022 imposed a state of emergency that's been used to arrest more than 91,000 suspected gang members, including thousands 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. Rights groups, however, have denounced what they say are gross human rights abuses, including a lack of due process for the detainees, reports of torture and more than 500 deaths in prison. Same sentences for...