A court in El Salvador This Thursday, a virtual hearing to impose measures against 492 ringleaders of the feared Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), accused of thousands of crimes, including more than 500 homicides.
“The hearing begins to impose measures against the 492 leaders of the MS linked to 37,402 crimes, committed between 2012 and 2022,” announced the Attorney General's Office (FGR) on the social network X.
“More than 500 homicides, disappearances of people, extortion, arms trafficking, human trafficking are being attributed to this corporation,” said deputy anti-crime prosecutor Max Muñoz, in a video released by the prosecutor's office.
Muñoz assured that they are also accused of the “crime of rebellion against the democratic system of El Salvador.”. “This for having taken up arms in order to control part of the territory,” he stated.
The hearing is held four days after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele self-proclaimed his re-election with 85% of votesthanks to his “war” against gangs.
The country has been living under a state of emergency for two years, which led to the arrest of almost 76,000 people without a court order, of which more than 7,000 were released because they were innocent.
Human rights organizations criticize the emergency regime as they denounce “arbitrary arrests”, “torture” and “deaths” in prison.
Gang members from 'Mara Salvatrucha' and 'Barrio-18' remain together in formation.
His own army
In addition to controlling 80% of Salvadoran territory, According to the government, the gang members are accused of “collecting taxes, exercising their own justice and having an armed group to achieve such ends.”
After the end of the civil war in 1992, Salvadorans began to live under the terror of the Mara Salvatrucha and its rival Barrio 18 gangs, which together numbered around 100,000 members.
To hold the hearing, the Sixth Court against Organized Crime of San Salvador established an internet “connection” with 10 penal centers where the gang members are held, including the megaprison that Bukele inaugurated a year ago.
The prosecutor specified that among the defendants are 24 leaders of the “historic ranfla” (highest structure), 215 ranfleros and 253 “program runners” (responsible for various cells in a region).
Muñoz explained that of the 215 “ranfleros”, 166 are in prisons and 49 “in the free community.”
“It appears in the investigations that each crime committed by each gang member had to be ordered and endorsed by the ringleaders,” said the Prosecutor's Office.
The government attributes more than 120,000 homicides to gangs in recent decades.
AFP
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