Through social networks, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukelecompared the mass trials against a group of 486 alleged leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) with those of Nurembergwhere the main leaders were tried Nazis after World War II, after human rights activists criticized the process.
“Unfairly unfair? These terrorists They are not petty criminals. They are well-known gang leaders, most of them already convicted of crimes that they personally committed, including murder, rape (often rape followed by murder), extortion and kidnapping“added the Salvadoran president in X.
“This so-called mass trial is about the 47 thousand crimes they ordered, including more than 29 thousand murders proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The only new aspect is to hold the bosses responsible for the crimes carried out cape by their organizations,” Bukele added in response to human rights organizations.
“We didn’t invent that principle. It’s called command responsibility and it was applied in Europe during the Nuremberg trials,” the president argued in reference to the series of judicial processes carried out between [1945and1949to judge the main leaders, officials and collaborators of the regime Nazi for the crimes committed.
Criticism of Bukele
“Are you against those? trials also? Or are they just applying the logic of “it’s okay for me, but not for you?” said the Salvadoran president in response to a message on the same social network. Kenneth Rothformer director of an organization dedicated to investigating, denouncing and defending human rights in more than 100 countries.
This is because Roth, of Human Rights Watchdescribed as “unfair“the collective trial of alleged gang members” through emergency powers controversial“, in reference to the fact that El Salvador has been under a exception regime uninterrupted since March 2022, due to a measure adopted by the Nayib Bukele government.
“A Salvadoran court began a unfortunately unfair mass trial of 486 alleged gang members, in one of the largest mass trials under President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on gang violence through emergency powers questionable”, argued the 70-year-old American lawyer.
Despite this, the Salvadoran president defended the single open hearing, which allows judging of massively to alleged gang members and keep the process active to add new defendants in the future, because it is a model established after reforms to the Penal Code of El Salvador, promoted by the Bukele administration.
The defendants in the mass trial
According to what was stated by the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador, of the 486 defendants, 413 They are imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum security prison, a symbol of the “war” against the gangs led by the Bukele government, and arrest warrants have been issued for 73 subjects.
Given the circumstances, the global independent movement, Amnesty Internationalindicated that the true importance of this process lies in the fact that President Nayib Bukele “established that individuals can be criminally responsible at the international level and laid the foundations for modern international criminal law“.
“Woefully unfair”?
These 486 terrorists are not petty criminals. They are well-known gang leaders, most of them already convicted of crimes they personally committed, including murder, rape (often rape followed by murder), extortion, and kidnapping.
But this so-called “mass… https://t.co/oCV6fMyzxW
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 22, 2026