Mass Murder Trial in El Salvador for Nearly 500 Alleged MS-13 Members – CBS News

El Salvador is conducting a mass trial of nearly 500 alleged members of the MS-13 gang, prosecutors say, for crimes committed between 2012 and 2022 including tens of thousands of homicides.

The Attorney General’s Office said 486 suspected MS-13 members are on trial for 47,000 crimes, including 29,000 homicides, committed during that period. The trial includes members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, program coordinators from across the country and founders of the gang.

Prosecutors allege the group sought to establish a parallel state and have charged them with the crime of rebellion. Salvadoran authorities accuse MS-13 of a range of crimes, including the killing of 87 people in a single weekend in March 2022.

The mass trial is part of President Nayib Bukele’s anti-gang crackdown, which began after he declared a “war” on gangs following the March 2022 killings. Bukele has said gangs controlled 80 percent of Salvadoran territory before the campaign.

The attorney-general’s office said prosecutors aim to “settle a historic debt” by putting the suspects on trial. The court system said anonymous judges will hand down a one-size-fits-all sentence to the large group of defendants.

El Salvador has conducted mass trials of thousands of suspected gang members as part of the crackdown, many of whom have spent years in prison without charge or visiting rights. The campaign 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, according to government officials.

Rights groups have denounced the crackdown, saying it involves gross human rights abuses including lack of due process, reports of torture, and more than 500 deaths in prison. Bukele imposed a state of emergency in 2022 that has been used to arrest more than 91,000 suspected gang members, including thousands who were later declared innocent.

The trial began on Monday, April 20, 2026, with nearly 490 alleged MS-13 members attending collectively, according to court officials. The proceedings are being held via video link for the prisoners.