STORY: :: Soyapango, El Salvador / April 21, 2026
:: A Salvadoran court starts a mass trial of over 400 alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, or MS-13
:: Prosecutors say the charges cover more than 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 to 2022
:: The charges include homicide, femicide, extortion and arms trafficking
Under the state of emergency that took effect in 2022 and has been repeatedly renewed, security forces have detained more than 91,500 people and Congress passed a decree allowing for mass trials.
Human rights groups have warned that the collective prosecutions violate due process and block defendants from accessing legal counsel.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday reiterated concerns over human rights violations through the long-extended state of emergency, and called for an end to its use as a crime-fighting strategy.
The defendants in the current case are being held across five prisons including CECOT, a notorious maximum-security prison opened by the Bukele administration in 2023 that has come to embody El Salvador's zero-tolerance crackdown on gangs.
