The country is running a war against organized crime.
A dreaded gangster who was part of an organized criminal gang has been jailed for 1,310 years for his long list of crimes, which comprises 33 murders, nine murder plots, and several other dangerous criminal activities.
The criminal, named Wilmer Segovia, was a member of the Shulton cell of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, which is infamous for its heinous crimes in El Salvador, reported The Metro News.
The report further mentions another criminal who was also sentenced to a long prison term, gangster Miguel Angel Portillo, who was sentenced to 945 years in jail for his involvement in 22 homicides and several other attempted murders, attacks, arsons, and extortion crimes.
These sentencings are the results of the highly contentious year-long “war” against the country’s famed gangs by El Salvador’s populist leader, Nayib Bukele.
A significant number of gang members are now imprisoned there.
A few days ago, El Salvador’s government transferred thousands of suspected gang members to a recently opened “mega prison,” and the nation’s president tweeted about it.
On February 24th, President Nayib Bukele’s tweet in Spanish, when translated to English, reads as follows: “Today at dawn, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT). This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, mixed up, unable to do any more harm to the population.”
Hoy en la madrugada, en un solo operativo, trasladamos a los primeros 2,000 pandilleros al Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).
Esta será su nueva casa, donde vivirán por décadas, mezclados, sin poder hacerle más daño a la población.
Seguimos…#GuerraContraPandillaspic.twitter.com/9VvsUBvoHC
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 24, 2023
Around 2,000 accused gang members were moved to the 40,000-person-capacity prison, considered to be the largest in the Americas.
Nayib Bukele’s militarized effort that resulted in over 60,000 suspected gang members being arrested was sparked by the contentious measure against organized crime in El Salvador, which has been repeatedly extended and is still in effect.
Rights groups have raised questions about alleged abuses during the state of emergency, including possible arrests of innocent people and cover-ups of the deaths of detainees in state custody.
(With input from agencies)
