SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A court in El Salvador has sentenced members of the El Gremio criminal gang to prison terms exceeding 1,000 years after convicting them of drug trafficking, money laundering and participation in an organised criminal group.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office said 28 gang members were found guilty of offences including drug trafficking, money laundering and illicit association following a lengthy prosecution.
Two of the convicted gang members each received prison sentences of 1,048 years, while the remaining defendants were also handed lengthy jail terms based on the number and severity of offences attributed to them.
The convictions come amid President Nayib Bukele’s aggressive anti-gang campaign, which began in 2022 under a nationwide state of emergency aimed at dismantling powerful criminal organisations that had long fuelled violence across the country.
Since the crackdown was launched, Salvadoran authorities say more than 90,000 suspected gang members have been arrested, with many detained in high-security prisons, including the country’s Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT).
The Bukele administration has credited the campaign with dramatically reducing homicide rates and restoring public security, making the policy popular among many Salvadorans.
In March, El Salvador’s Congress, where Bukele’s allies hold a commanding majority, approved constitutional reforms replacing the previous maximum prison sentence of 60 years with life imprisonment for those convicted of offences such as murder, rape and terrorism.
Lawmakers later expanded the reform to allow life sentences for offenders under the age of 18 convicted of the same crimes.
However, the government’s security strategy has drawn sustained criticism from international human rights organisations, which argue that the prolonged state of emergency has weakened judicial safeguards and led to widespread rights violations.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused the government of arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions without due process and holding innocent people in custody during the anti-gang operations.
According to Amnesty International, hundreds of detainees have died while in custody since the crackdown began, while thousands have allegedly been subjected to arbitrary detention.
The Bukele administration has rejected allegations of systematic human rights abuses, maintaining that its measures are necessary to dismantle violent criminal networks and protect public safety.
