A Salvadoran court began a mass trial of 486 alleged MS-13 gang members on Monday, prosecuting them collectively for more than 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides.
The defendants face charges spanning homicide, femicide, extortion, arms trafficking and enforced disappearances. Prosecutors say the group includes national leadership, street-level commanders and founding members of Mara Salvatrucha, one of Central America's most powerful criminal organizations.
The trial represents one of the largest mass prosecutions under President Nayib Bukele's four-year state of emergency, which has detained more than 91,000 suspected gang members since March 2022. The Guardian reports that 413 defendants are being held at the Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison that has become a symbol of Bukele's zero-tolerance approach.
The charges and evidence
Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado said the prosecution has "compelling evidence" to seek maximum penalties against the defendants. The charges include a weekend in March 2022 when 87 people were killed, marking El Salvador's bloodiest period since its civil war.
"For years, this structure has operated systematically, causing fear and mourning among Salvadoran families."
Delgado said on social media. The prosecution has presented autopsies, ballistic analyses and witness testimony as evidence.
MS-13 faces an additional charge of rebellion for allegedly seeking to "establish a parallel state," according to the Attorney General's Office. CBS News reports that Bukele has accused the gangs of murdering 200,000 people, including 80,000 who disappeared without a trace.
Individual defendants could receive up to 245 years in prison if convicted on multiple charges. The trial includes 73 alleged gang members being prosecuted in absentia.
Due process concerns mount
Human rights organizations have sharply criticized the mass trial format, arguing it violates fundamental legal protections. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called Tuesday for an end to the emergency powers, saying they suspend rights to legal defense and extend detention timelines from 72 hours to 15 days.
Juan Pappier of Human Rights Watch told ABC News that "these mass trials lack basic guarantees of due process and thus they increase the risk of convicting innocent people."
- More than 91,000 people arrested under emergency powers since 2022
- At least 8,000 innocent people detained and later released, Bukele acknowledged
- Over 500 deaths reported in state custody
- 6,000 complaints filed by victims under the emergency measures
The emergency regime allows security forces to intercept communications without court orders and holds many defendants in prison for years without formal charges or visiting rights. BBC footage shows large groups of prisoners attending proceedings via video link from their cells.
Bukele's security transformation
The crackdown has dramatically transformed El Salvador's security landscape. Government statistics show the homicide rate dropped from 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 to 1.3 per 100,000 in the most recent year, making it one of Latin America's safest countries after being among its most dangerous.
The policy has made Bukele hugely popular domestically, with his iron-fist approach resonating with citizens exhausted by decades of gang violence. MS-13 and rival Barrio 18 originated among Salvadoran youth in Los Angeles before spreading back to Central America, where they have operated drug trafficking and extortion networks for over 30 years.
Previous mass trials have resulted in severe sentences. In March 2025, 52 Barrio 18 members received prison terms up to 245 years. Another collective trial in November 2025 handed a 397-year sentence to one gang leader.
How the outlets are framing it
The Guardian (left-leaning) emphasized human rights violations and due process concerns, leading with warnings from advocacy groups about collective prosecutions blocking legal counsel access.
ABC News (centre-left) balanced the security achievements with rights concerns, quoting both Human Rights Watch criticism and government crime statistics showing the dramatic homicide rate decline.
BBC (centre) focused on the visual spectacle of mass video-link proceedings, providing neutral coverage of both the charges and UN expert concerns about undermining defense rights.
CBS News (centre-left) highlighted the scale of alleged crimes while noting Bukele's close relationship with President Trump and the designation of MS-13 as a terrorist organization.
The trial continues with anonymous judges presiding over proceedings that could reshape Central America's approach to organized crime. Bukele has acknowledged that his emergency measures detained thousands of innocent people, but maintains the crackdown was necessary to break gang control over 80 percent of Salvadoran territory.
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