MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

El Salvador puts 486 MS-13 leaders on trial for 29,000 killings in process Bukele compares to Nuremberg

President Nayib Bukele described as “historic” and compared to the Nuremberg trials against Nazi leaders after the Second World War

El Salvador launched in late April the largest trial in the country's history against 486 alleged leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha-13, accused of ordering more than 29,000 killings committed between 2012 and 2022, in a process President Nayib Bukele described as “historic” and compared to the Nuremberg trials against Nazi leaders after the Second World War. The proceedings, held before a specialized tribunal with anonymous judges, represent the first case worldwide in which the “command responsibility” principle has been applied to a gang structure.

Of the 486 defendants, 413 appear virtually from the Centre for Terrorist Confinement (CECOT), the maximum-security mega-prison inaugurated in 2023, while 73 others are fugitives being tried in absentia. The prosecution charges the group with 47,000 offenses in total, including killings, femicides, extortion, drug trafficking, enforced disappearances, and arms trafficking. The core of the accusation focuses on 22 leaders who form the so-called Ranfla Nacional, the gang's ruling council, accused of having ordered crimes from the maximum-security prison of Zacatecoluca. The breaking point that precipitated the crackdown was a wave of 87 killings carried out between March 25 and 27, 2022, including 62 murders in a single day, which led Bukele to declare a state of exception and militarize the state's response.

Bukele justified the judicial approach in posts on X. “What is new is holding leaders accountable for the crimes committed by their organizations. But we didn't invent that principle. It is called 'command responsibility' and it was applied in Europe during the Nuremberg Trials,” the president wrote. The comparison generated controversy. Former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth described the trial as “unfair” for grouping hundreds of defendants in a collective proceeding that, in his view, presumes collective guilt rather than establishing individual responsibility. Noah Bullock, executive director of the human rights organization Cristosal, stated that “mass trials that do not individualize charges or evidence can only be a shortcut to create the perception of effective justice.”

The investigation is partly based on the confessions of 13 protected witnesses who described the so-called “Válvulas abiertas” operation, through which the gang's leadership ordered nationwide killings from cells inside Zacatecoluca. Deputy Prosecutor against Organized Crime Max Muñoz explained that the testimonies constitute “the evidentiary foundation to attribute all homicides, all crimes committed by the structure, to the Ranfla.”

The state of exception imposed in March 2022 has produced more than 91,000 detentions without judicial order, a figure challenged by international bodies including Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which documented arbitrary arrests, torture, and deaths in custody. At least 33,000 of those detained were not profiled as gang members before the measure. Nevertheless, Bukele's policy commands high levels of popular support: the homicide rate fell from 18 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 1.9 in 2025, according to official data.