A leader of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) was sentenced this Tuesday to a total of 1,090 years in prisonin the framework of a war against gangs declared by President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, César Alfredo Romero Chávez, leader of MS-13, “He is responsible for 24 cases of aggravated homicide. The bodies of the victims were buried in clandestine cemeteries.”
In the judicial process that lasted two months 93 other members of the Mara Salvatrucha were also convicted, for a total of 54 serious crimesexplained the Prosecutor’s Office. “He was found guilty of multiple crimes and sentenced to 1,090 years in prison,” the entity detailed, in a sum of sentences for each crime committed.
Among Romero’s victims are two police officers and the son of a journalist. All the events occurred between 2016 and 2019. Despite the high sentence, the Penal Code of El Salvador establishes that the maximum sentence of imprisonment is 60 years.
The Congress of El Salvador, controlled by allies of President Bukele, has extended at least until the end of July an exceptional regime, which allows arrests without a court order.
The measure began at the end of March, as a reaction to 87 murders that occurred during a weekend, all attributed to gang activities. Parliament has also toughened the penalties for belonging to these organizations, mainly the MS-13 and Barrio 18, which operate in the country, dedicated, among other things, to drug trafficking and extortion.
Even before the government onslaught, about 16,000 of its members were imprisonedbut with the arrests of the last three months, 59,086 would be behind bars, 84% of the 70,000 members who are officially considered to exist in the country.
Most of those detained are still awaiting trial, while humanitarian organizations and even the United States government have called on El Salvador to respect human rights.
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