San Salvador (AFP) – Around 490 alleged members of the powerful Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), including several alleged leaders, went on trial collectively in El Salvador on Monday, accused of thousands of murders.

The Attorney General’s office and courts announced the start of the trial, part of iron-fisted President Nayib Bukele’s anti-gang crackdown.

El Salvador is conducting mass trials of thousands of suspected gang members, many of which have spent years in prison without charge or visiting rights.

The Attorney General’s office said 486 suspected MS-13 members were on trial for 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides.

The country’s court system said that the trial included “members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, program coordinators from across the country, and founders of” MS-13.

Salvadoran authorities accuse the brutal group of a range of crimes, including the killing of 87 people in a single weekend in March 2022.

In the wake of those killings, President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, declared a “war” on gangs, which he said controlled 80 percent of Salvadoran territory.

MS-13 is charged with the crime of rebellion “because they sought to…establish a parallel state,” the Attorney General’s office said.

Bukele in 2022 imposed a state of emergency, which has been used to arrest over 91,000 suspected gang members, including thousands of people who were later declared innocent.

The campaign, which made Bukele hugely popular, has resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime, turning El Salvador from one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries to one of its safest.

However rights groups have denounced gross human rights abuses, including a complete lack of due process for the detainees, reports of torture and more than 500 deaths in prison.

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