Gang sisters are sentenced to 16 years in prison in Mejicanos

The Second Sentencing Court of San Salvador sentenced Ismelda Marisol Hurtado Cerna and her sister Reina Vanessa to 16 years in prison for threatening and forcing the residents of two Mejicanos homes to leave the place.

In the public hearing, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) proved that the women coerced the victims to forcibly leave Mejicanos or else they would attack them.

In the investigations that police officers carried out under the direction of the Prosecutor’s Office, it was determined that the Mara Salvatrucha gang members instilled terror in the area in order to remove people from their homes.

#Condemn I Two sisters linked to the MS13 were sentenced to 16 years in prison for threatening and forcing several Salvadoran families to abandon their homes in Mejicanos.

In 2022, Ismelda Marisol and Reina Vanessa Hurtado Cerna approached different residents to… pic.twitter.com/zeuzOwJ3va

— Attorney General’s Office of the Republic El Salvador (@FGR_SV) February 20, 2024

In the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office explained that at the end of 2012 the gangs arrived at the house of the two families, who restricted and prohibited free movement in the community, but when they saw that the victims did not comply with their orders, they threatened to kill them. for them to abandon their homes.

During the investigations, the police obtained information that the gang members had arrived at the homes of several families to make a series of demands in the name of the Mara Salvatrucha.

They had ordered the residents that they did not have authorization to move freely and that as a gang they were the ones who decided the places where they could go and the activities they were going to carry out.

For fear of reprisals, none of the residents dared to denounce the gang members who had taken control of the place; they decided who came and went.

Despite the threats, two of the families decided to go to the authorities first to report what was happening and have the case investigated. The Prosecutor’s Office and Police supported the victims, to protect their identity they granted them a protection regime to guarantee that they collaborated by contributing. information and be able to identify the gang members to bring them to court.

In the ruling issued, the judge in the case found them guilty of the crime of illegally limiting free movement and agreed to the prosecutor’s request to convict them.

Information was added to the file consisting of documentary evidence containing the victims’ complaint, records of proceedings that police officers carried out, as well as the testimony of the families affected by the actions of the gangs.