Prosecutors say 486 people on trial in El Salvador are linked to 47,000 alleged crimes, including about 29,000 homicides between 2012 and 2022. The mass trial opened on Monday and concerns suspected members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13, the country's court system said.

Large-scale prosecution moves forward The court system said the group on trial includes "members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, programme coordinators from across the country, and founders of" MS-13. Prosecutors have also pressed charges of rebellion, arguing the gang tried to "establish a parallel state" in parts of El Salvador. Many of those on trial have been held for years without regular visits or formal charges, according to court announcements. Defendants will attend proceedings by video link from prison, and some hearings are being overseen by judges sitting anonymously, a practice introduced under the emergency measures the government adopted in 2022. How this fits into Bukele's crackdown - President Nayib Bukele declared what he called a "war" on gangs after a wave of killings in March 2022 in which Salvadoran authorities said 87 people were murdered over a single weekend. - Mr Bukele has said gangs controlled up to 80% of Salvadoran territory and has credited the crackdown with a sharp fall in violent crime since 2022. - Under a state of emergency imposed in 2022, security forces detained more than 91,000 people suspected of gang links, the Attorney General's office said; tens of thousands remain in detention and some were later released after being cleared. Supporters of Mr Bukele say the arrests and prosecutions have restored security in neighbourhoods once terrorised by extortion and street violence. Critics, however, say the methods used violate due process and international norms. Rights concerns and the justice system Human rights organisations have repeatedly warned that emergency powers have led to arbitrary detentions, restricted legal access for detainees and reports of abuse in custody. Reports covering the trial recount allegations of torture and say more than 500 deaths have occurred in prisons since the crackdown began. Those concerns have centred on the speed and scale of arrests and the use of mass trials. The process of grouping hundreds of defendants and trying them in collective proceedings has been criticised by rights groups for limiting individual defence strategies and making it hard to determine each person's role in specific crimes. Salvadoran authorities reject those criticisms. The Attorney General's office said it has "ample evidence" against the accused and framed the mass trials as necessary to dismantle criminal networks that span municipalities and countries. International ties and the US connection The United States has been closely engaged with El Salvador during the crackdown. The two countries have discussed deportations of suspected gang members and other forms of security cooperation. In 2025, Mr Bukele reached an agreement with the White House under which the US provided funds to El Salvador to hold deportees in its prisons; reported figures differ. The relationship between the two countries has focused on deportations and security cooperation.

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Why this matters The trial is the latest, large-scale step in President Bukele's 2022 security push — a campaign that has seen more than 91,000 detentions and drawn both praise for reducing violence and criticism from rights groups for curbing due process. What happens next Proceedings will continue with many defendants attending by video link from prison and some hearings overseen by anonymous judges, authorities said.

This article was created with AI assistance.