{"id":2044,"date":"2026-04-24T02:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:16:19","slug":"mass-ms-13-trial-held-at-el-salvador-mega-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/mass-ms-13-trial-held-at-el-salvador-mega-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass MS-13 trial held at El Salvador mega-jail"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

AFP<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Hundreds of alleged Mara Salvatrucha gang members sat chained, shaved and mute as they were accused of murder and torture during a mass trial at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT jail, AFP reporters witnessed Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seated in neat columns of plastic chairs in the prison’s main hall, some 220 defendants are accused of collectively carrying out more than 29,000 murders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We burned her genitals and buttocks” one witness said over the loudspeaker, testifying in a mass trial El Salvador’s president has compared to those of Nazi leaders at Nuremberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those on trial are about 20 alleged leaders and dozens of lieutenants, many with tattooed faces, heads, hands, and necks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some stared at journalists. All were dressed in white T\u2011shirts and shorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds more defendants appeared remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights groups have criticized the mass trials, warning that innocent people would inevitably be caught up in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the testimony, gang members tied many victims’ hands and took them to remote areas to kill them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A phalanx of guards with full armor and riot shields watched over proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a horrifying account that makes your hair stand on end,” said a hooded CECOT security agent who did not give his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘World’s coolest dictator’<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The hearing took place on the fourth day of the mass trial at the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center, southeast of San Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two witnesses testified that gang leaders ordered killings from prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alleged leaders included “The little devil of Hollywood” Borromeo Henriquez and “Snaider of Pasadena” Carlos Tiberio Ramirez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors accuse them directly of about 9,000 crimes. They listened to the accusations without reacting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These individuals caused mourning and pain to our society for many years,” said CECOT director Belarmino Garcia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salvador’s government invited journalists to witness proceedings under strict security protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Journalists
Journalists record and picture monitors broadcasting the mass hearing against alleged leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) at the Judicial Center Against Organized Crime in Soyapango, El Salvador, on April 20, 2026.
Nearly 490 alleged members of the powerful Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), including several alleged leaders, went on trial collectively in El Salvador, accused of thousands of murders. PHOTO: AFP\/ MARVIN RECINOS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The prison, and the mass trials, have become centerpieces of media-savvy President Nayib Bukele’s efforts to be, in his words, the “world’s coolest dictator”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has declared a “war” on gangs, imposing a state of emergency in 2022 which has since been used to arrest more than 90,000 suspected gang members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many caught in the dragnet were later declared innocent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters say Bukele has made safe a country once ravaged by violent gangs and dubbed the murder capital of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has served as a model for many right-wing political candidates across Latin America looking to tap into widespread concerns about crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US President Donald Trump sent 140 Venezuelan alleged gang members to CECOT last year, a move that US courts later said was unlawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the United States alleged that despite Bukele’s carefully cultivated tough-on-crime image, his government held “covert negotiations” and “provided financial incentives” to gangs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secret deals were allegedly cut to reduce violence and for gangs to provide “political support” for Bukele’s New Ideas party.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seated in neat columns of plastic chairs in the prison’s main hall, some 220 defendants are accused of collectively carrying out more than 29,000 murders.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global"],"blocksy_meta":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2049,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions\/2049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pittglobalnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}