The Albany Gazette - Gang members given hundreds-years-long sentences in El Salvador

In a post on X, the Attorney General's office said that 248 members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang had received "exemplary sentences" for 43 homicides and 42 disappearances, among other crimes.

It did not specify the date of the sentencings or whether the accused had been tried en masse.

One individual was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison, while 10 others received prison terms ranging from 463 to 958 years, the post said.

Since March 2022, President Nayib Bukele has been cracking down on gangs under a state of emergency that allows for arrests without warrants.

More than 90,000 people have been detained, and some 8,000 have been released after being found not guilty, according to official sources.

Bukele's campaign against gangs has reduced homicides to historically low levels in the Central American country, but human rights groups accuse the security forces of committing abuses.

According to the Salvadoran government, MS-13 and another gang, Barrio 18, are responsible for the deaths of approximately 200,000 people over the course of three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of the country, and El Salvador had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

The groups extorted "victims who owned businesses, demanding different amounts of money in exchange for not harming them," the Attorney General's office said.

"Some people had to close their businesses out of fear of the threats," it added.

The United States has designated MS-13 and several other gangs in Central and South America as foreign terrorist organizations.

(R.White--TAG)