The authorities of El Salvador reported on April 22 that approximately 400 alleged leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha will be tried at the same time in a so-called “macro hearing” for “more than 47 thousand crimes” committed between 2012 and 2022.
According to information from the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador (FGR), the 486 gang members will face each other “for the first time” this type of hearing, which allows those accused to be judged en masse and, in this way, keep the criminal process against them active.
Furthermore, “macro hearings” will allow authorities to include new defendants as investigations continue.
The Salvadoran prosecutor’s office did not provide further details of the hearing. In addition, local and foreign media were not allowed to enter.
“During the day, the first testimonial evidence was presented, which indicates that the 22 defendants have the rank of ranfleros, the highest hierarchy of the terrorist structure, if they are those responsible for all the crimes committed by the gang,” said the prosecutor’s office.
The authorities also indicated that among the crimes attributed to the gang members are homicides, femicides, extortion, arms trafficking and disappearance of people.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, this type of hearings – which began in December of last year – were established following a reform to the Law against Organized Crime, with which the Prosecutor’s Office “massively prosecutes the entire criminal structure in a single file”.
The investigating entity maintained that those involved “are also being prosecuted for the crime of rebellion because they sought to maintain territorial control to establish a parallel state, attacking national sovereignty“.
He noted that “in March 2022, these subjects gave orders to murder 86 victims, which opened the implementation of the emergency regime,” and indicated that of the accused “413 are already in prison in Cecot“, the Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum security prison symbol of the “war” against the gangs, led by the Government of President Nayib Bukele.
Arrest warrants have been issued against “73 subjects“, who are being prosecuted as absentees, added the FGR, without specifying whether all of the defendants were captured during the emergency regime.
Neither does the Prosecutor’s Office specified the duration period of said process.
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