Vicious gangs like MS-13 have been a problem for El Salvador for years. Now, former Salvadoran President Mauricio has been sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday for even negotiating with these gangs as the current Nayib Bukele administration continues its intense but widely popular gang crackdowns.

Funes is now living in Nicaragua and was absent throughout his trial. However, El Salvador changed its laws and allowed trials to be held even if the defendant was not present. This meant that the government was free to prosecute the ex-president, with his trial beginning last April.

According to the Associated Press, Funes was accused of illicit association and failure to perform his duties. This was in connection to his truce negotiation with the Salvadoran gangs back in 2012 while he was still in office.

Former Funes administration security minister, Gen. David Munguia Payes, was also sentenced to 18 years in prison over his involvement in the negotiations. The former minister stated that his trial was full of irregularities and that he is a political prisoner. He also claims that the accusations against him have no foundation.

Ex-President Funes himself released a statement following his sentencing, saying, "In my opinion, the sentence, insofar as it refers to me, is illegal, doesn't have legal foundation; the sentence of General Munguia Payes seem unjust to me," adding that the state failed to justify the charges against his former security minister.

Mauricio Funes served as El Salvador's president from 2009 to 2014 before fleeing to Nicaragua and getting citizenship there in 2019. One of his administration's highlights was negotiating with these powerful street gangs like MS-13 to lower the homicide rate in exchange for benefits. However, the El Salvador Supreme Court ruled that these gangs were terrorist organizations in 2015.

El Salvador Continues Brutal Crackdowns Against Violent Gangs

So far, the violent crackdowns against these street gangs in El Salvador have been violent, and President Nayib Bukele announced that they are launching a new offensive last Sunday, which was just twelve days after a policeman was killed.

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Police officer Maximo Vasquez was murdered by one of these gangs, and this has led to Bukele ordering 5,000 soldiers and 500 police to besiege the town of Nueva Concepcion, which has a big gang presence in a town with a population of 30,000 people, according to the Tico Times.

The gang cell responsible for the policeman's murder was reportedly destroyed, and its leader was arrested. However, the country is still in a state of emergency, with Bukele ordering towns to be besieged by police and military on a regular basis to root out these gangs.

El Salvador Gang Crackdown Has Now Resulted in 153 People Dying in Custody

While Bukele's gang crackdowns have proven to be approved by the majority of the populace, human rights groups were crying foul over what authorities have been doing to gang members in custody. This includes the human rights group Cristosal, which just released a detailed 107-page report about the abuses done by Salvadoran authorities.

According to The Guardian, the rights group confirmed that 153 people had died in custody since Bukele started the crackdowns. Of these deaths, 29 had been violent, while another 46 were considered as such. The group also added that most of the bodies of those who died showed torture, beatings, or strangulation.

The group also has evidence to back up these claims of rights abuses, such as photographs and mortuary reports that showed that the bodies of those who died while in custody had "asphyxiation, [bone] fractures, significant bruising, lacerations, and even perforations." There were also signs that some of those who died in custody had died of malnutrition.

READ MORE: El Salvador: Military and Police Surround Town to Root Out MS-13 Gang Members

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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