Hundreds of years in prison for members of El Salvador’s criminal gangs.
The President of the Central American country of El Salvador, Najib Bucaramanga, has declared a “war” on criminal gangs, which has resulted in the issuance of unprecedented sentences of several centuries and thousands of years in prison against some of its members.
According to Radio France, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of El Salvador announced in a message on the social media X that it had sentenced 248 members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang to “exemplary” sentences for 43 murders and 42 disappearances, among other crimes.
Ten of them were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 463 to 958 years. Another, considered a “terrorist” by the United States, was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison.
Since March 2022, the President of El Salvador has declared a state of emergency, which allows for arrests without a warrant. According to official sources, more than 90,000 people have been arrested so far, and about 8,000 have been released after declaring their innocence.
Radio France added: The Salvadoran president’s fight against gangs has sharply reduced the number of murders in the Central American country, but human rights organizations condemn the government’s actions in this regard and point the finger of blame at the police.