US EditionIn El Salvador's mass trials, 'the innocent pay for the guilty'
Rights groups say sealed hearings and limited defense are driving convictions for more than 91,000 detainees under the emergency crackdown.
- On April 1, 2026, El Salvador's Attorney General's Office accelerated mass gang trials, aiming to finalize 3,000 indictments in 'faceless courts' where anonymous judges decide fates en masse.
- President Nayib Bukele's state of emergency, in place since 2022, has led to the detention of more than 91,000 people, representing around 1.4 percent of El Salvador's population without due process.
- Families of Williams Diaz, a 35-year-old air conditioning technician, and Jonathan, a 24-year-old factory worker, fear relatives will be convicted without defense, describing the process as 'like Russian roulette.'
- Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Americas Juan Pappier warned these proceedings 'lack the basic guarantees of due process,' while lawyers describe the system as a 'massive conviction factory.'
- Following recent legislative action, the maximum sentence for gang-related 'terrorists' has increased to life imprisonment, including for minors; detainees remain held in the Terrorism Confinement Center , where Bukele predicted suspects would 'never' leave.
38 Articles
38 Articles
Malay Mail
AlKhaleej TodayIn El Salvador’s mass trials, ‘the innocent pay for the guilty’
SOYAPANGO (El Salvador), April 7 — Wearing white uniforms, their heads shaved, rows of bewildered-looking men are beamed by video link from prisons across El Salvador into a courtroom conducting a mass trial of alleged gang members.Four years after President Nayib Bukele declared war against gangs in the Central American nation, the fates of thousands of prisoners are being decided en masse with the single swing of a judge’s gavel.Williams Diaz,…
Soyapango, El Salvador. Williams Díaz was arrested by soldiers more than three years ago when he was going to work. Today, in the megacarcel of gang members in El Salvador, he awaits his collective judgment: “He is innocent and will be tried with criminals,” his mother laments. Mass trials in El Salvador are advancing against some 91,000 people detained under the emergency regime imposed by President Nayib Bukele four years ago, in his anti-gang…
InsideNoVA.com
In El Salvador's mass trials, 'the innocent pay for the guilty'
Wearing white uniforms, their heads shaved, rows of bewildered-looking men are beamed by video link from prisons across El Salvador into a courtroom conducting a mass trial of alleged gang members.
Lawyers say they have no chance of a fair trial; families fear that "the innocent will pay for the guilty" in the trials. Regeneración, April 6 […] The entry Mass trials in El Salvador: innocent people could be imprisoned was first published on RegeneraciónMX.
_**El Salvador's justice system increases mass hearings, where hundreds of accused are tried simultaneously. A method denounced by lawyers and families, who fear that innocent people will be taken away in this swift judicial mechanism.**_ The Salvadoran judicial system has embarked on a profound transformation under the exceptional regime in force for the past four years. [...] Read more Collective trial in El Salvador, the shadows of the anti-g…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 48% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
