Central America Security Policy

El Salvador’s attorney general’s office announced that 248 members of the MS-13 gang have received "exemplary" prison terms for 42 homicides, 42 disappearances and other crimes committed between 2014 and 2022, including a 1,335-year sentence for Marvin Abel Hernandez Palacios and 10 others sentenced to 463–958 years. The mass sentencing is part of President Nayib Bukele’s state-of-emergency gang crackdown that has led to more than 90,000 detentions, which the government credits with historic drops in homicides even as human rights groups allege widespread abuses; MS-13, a gang born in Los Angeles and now designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., is blamed by Salvadoran authorities for helping drive migration north.