El Salvador MS-13 member sentenced to 33 years as courts worldwide hand down long prison terms

A former MS-13 collaborator, Douglas Benavides Cruz, was sentenced to 33 years in prison for conspiring to murder police officers in El Salvador. In Spain, a professor from the IES of Zizur was convicted of filming 42 women in bathrooms and had his sentence reduced from 180 to 90 years, with a maximum effective term of seven and a half years.

In Mallorca, Spain, José López Lorente received a 34‑year term for bringing a Nigerian girl to the island and using her as a sexual slave. In the Colombian town of Tabio, Carlos Andrés Rivera Ruíz was sentenced to 44 years for aggravated femicide and violent sexual assault of a 58‑year‑old woman. In the Canary Islands, Antonio J. was sentenced to 23 years for aggravated murder in the Tabaiba case, with a joint compensation order of €153,500 to the victim’s family. In Mexico, three defendants – Celia del Carmen Alonso Mendoza, José Ricardo Pérez García and Manases de la Cruz Castro – were each given 25 years for a 2022 homicide in Cancún. Finally, prosecutors in Madrid’s Vallecas district are seeking a total of 26 years for a man accused of killing his partner despite a restraining order.

These rulings illustrate a wave of severe penalties for violent and sexual crimes across several countries.