On Monday, El Salvador’s Attorney General announced the beginning of a mass trial of 486 alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, who are accused of more than 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022.

Among the defendants, 413 are already detained in different penitentiary centers, while 73 have arrest warrants issued against them. 

The Attorney General said that 22 historical kingpins of the Ranfla, MS-13’s top leadership structure, will be prosecuted in the trial, along with 212 other Ranfla members and 152 program coordinators. Charges include aggravated homicide, disappearance of persons, extortion, arms trafficking, and femicide.

MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles as a street gang in the 1980s by Salvadoran refugees who fled the civil war. It spread to Central America when many of its members were deported to their home countries during the 1990s and has been designated as a terrorist organization both by El Salvador and the U.S.

The trial takes place amid El Salvador’s state of emergency, which President Nayib Bukele declared in March 2022 under Article 29 of the country’s Constitution. Under the emergency act, security forces have broader powers to arrest and detain suspects, while certain constitutional protections have been suspended.  

Once among the most violent countries in the world, El Salvador has managed to reduce its murder rate to 1.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in the whole continent. 

More than 91,000 suspected gang members have been arrested since the implementation of the state of emergency, according to the government.

These measures have drawn criticism from several human rights organizations, which accuse Bukele’s government of rights violations and abuses.

In a statement published on April 21, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concerns that the prolonged state of emergency “suspends the rights to a legal defense and to the inviolability of communications, and also extends administrative detention timelines.”
In a report published last March, Salvadoran rights group Cristosal said that critics of the government, including journalists, activists, and opposition figures, have faced increasing criminalization since 2021.

Despite the critics, the latest data published by CID Gallup show that Nayib Bukele has reached a 94% approval rating, the highest level since he came into power in 2019.

Featured image description: MS-13 gang members sat through a mass trial on April 20.

Featured image credit: El Salvador Attorney General’s Office.

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Experts say attacks, also carried out by settlers, are leading girls to quit school and enter early marriages

Israeli soldiers and settlers are using gendered violence and sexual assault and harassment to force Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, human rights and legal experts say.

Palestinian women, men and children have reported attacks, forced nudity, invasive and painful body cavity searches, Israelis exposing their genitals, including to minors, and threats of sexual violence.

Medellín, Colombia – There were 35 massacres in Colombia in the first three months of 2026, making it the most violent quarter in a decade, according to the Institute of Peace and Development Studies (Indepaz).

The Colombian NGO’s figures revealed that 133 people had died in the massacres, which occurred across 34 municipalities in 17 departments.

The grim figures come as Colombia faces a surge in violence related to its long-running armed conflict, almost ten years after a historic peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.

The massacres claimed the lives of 74 men, 16 women, and 17 children. 40 of the victims have not been identified. 

The first massacre of the year, in which three women were killed, was committed in Santander de Quilichao, Cauca, on January 3. The single most violent attack took place in El Retorno, Guaviare, where 26 people were killed on January 16. 

This makes this year’s first quarter the most violent in the last ten years, during which Indepaz has recorded the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in over 700 different massacres. 

On the back of the peace accords signed in November 2016 between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, 2017 was the least violent year, registering 33 massacres in total. 

However, following the election of Iván Duque in 2018, yearly records of massacres increased from 39 in the first year of his presidency to 96 in 2021.

Under the current Gustavo Petro administration, figures have remained at similar levels, oscillating between the highest point of 94 cases in 2023 and 76 cases in 2024. Petro’s policy of Paz Total (Total Peace) that has sought to counter violence by negotiating with armed groups has had mixed results. 

The period of 2021 to 2025 observed an average of 303 deaths annually, an increase on the average of 201 deaths each year in the preceding five year period.  Even the most violent periods of the last decade did not register as many quarterly cases as 2026 has witnessed so far. The first quarter of 2020 recorded 17 massacres, under half of this year’s equivalent figure. 

In the last decade, 1,657 men, 285 women, and at least 133 children have been killed. Valle del Cauca was the worst affected department with 62 massacres resulting in 215 deaths, followed by Cauca which saw 58 massacres and 200 deaths. 

The surge in violence has come at a crucial moment in Colombian politics with presidential elections set to take place on May 31. While Petro’s possible Historic Pact successor, Iván Cepeda, looks to continue the Paz total policy, other candidates have promised tougher military measures against armed groups.

Featured image credit: Policía Nacional de los colombianos via Flickr

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Medellín, Colombia – An outbreak of gang violence in Haiti on Sunday left at least 70 dead and displaced some 6,000, according to human rights group Défenseurs Plus.

The NGO’s estimate greatly differs from the official police figure of 16 deaths in the rural Artibonite region.

In recent years, Haiti has grappled with powerful gangs, with related violence making it one one of the most dangerous countries in the world. 

The Artibonite region, the country’s key agricultural centre, is one of the worst affected areas. Sunday’s violence has been attributed locally to the Gran Grif gang, which was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States last year. 

Antonal Mortimé, director of the human rights NGO Défenseurs Plus, told Haiti’s Radiotélévision Caraïbes that some 50 homes were set on fire on Sunday. 

The United Nations (UN) has urged “Haitian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation,” and estimated that between 10 and 80 people had been killed. 

A recent UN report confirmed over 5,500 deaths between March 2025 and January 2026. 

During this period violence has also spread out from the epicentre of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as gangs continued to commit kidnappings, child trafficking, and sexual abuse on a large scale. 

“Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Haiti has entered a phase of unprecedented violence, which we describe as structural. Violence is no longer only criminal; it is a tool for political and territorial control,” Mortimé told Latin American Reports. 

“Armed gangs, often instrumentalized by sectors of power and the economic elite, now control more than 80% of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince,” he added. 

Mortimé also criticized the state, which he believes has failed to strengthen the judicial system or national police in response to the ongoing crisis: “Impunity has become the norm: almost none of the major massacres documented by human rights organizations have resulted in a serious trial. This culture of impunity, nourished by widespread corruption in public institutions, prevents any attempt to restore republican order.”

To control this epidemic, Mortimé highlights the need for sweeping reforms of the government and judicial systems, as well as controls on the trafficking of illegal weapons. Despite Haiti’s total arms embargo, the UN has reported that weapons are being trafficked primarily from the U.S. due weak border control and corruption.

“The Haitian crisis is the product of a system where corruption and lack of accountability have supplanted public interest. The containment of this violence will necessarily involve the restoration of the rule of law and the protection of the fundamental rights of every citizen,” concluded Mortimé. 

Featured image license.

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