Ruth Eleonora López, one of El Salvador’s most prominent human rights lawyers, was arrested late on Sunday on charges of “characteristic violence”. She is a senior leader at the rights organization Cristosal. The 47-year-old is a fierce champion for immigrants. She has gained accolades for her work as an unrelenting warrior to protect those whom former U.S. President Donald Trump’s punitive policies have deported. Now, López has been often outspoken against President Nayib Bukele’s administration. He’s especially wary, for example, over the controversial crackdown targeting violent mass incarceration of suspected gang members.
The attorney general’s office confirmed López’s arrest. Their charge against her is that she embezzled state funds during her time at El Salvador’s electoral court over 12 years ago. Her supporters contend that the indictment is politically motivated and an effort to silence her dissenting voice. As Cristosal explained, police stormed their civil society offices while a news conference was taking place. They documented and videotaped working journalists and staff including López.
López has played a key role in helping Salvadoran families targeted by Bukele’s repressive security policies. Further, she has fought to protect more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants forcibly returned to El Salvador under Trump’s regime. Her commitment to justice and the rule of law is extraordinary. Consequently, the BBC named her one of the planet’s top 100 most inspiring and influential women.
This arrest has garnered widespread outrage from numerous human rights groups. It sparked an excellent joint statement signed by more than a dozen groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. They called for her to be released right away. They emphasized that “El Salvador’s state of exception has not only been used to address gang-related violence but as a tool to silence critical voices.”
Cristosal similarly voiced their grave concerns about what López’s arrest could mean for human rights defenders in the country. The organization stated, “Neither her family nor her legal team has managed to find out her whereabouts.”
López’s outspoken criticism of Bukele’s administration extends to the government’s handling of gang violence and civil liberties. She has denounced publicly these mass incarceration attempts, as many of these people have apparently been arrested without any formal charges. In response, experts have rung the alarm for the democratic guardrails being chipped away in El Salvador.
As tensions boil over in response to López’s detention, many are concerned that this fight is symptomatic of a growing global wave of authoritarianism. Observers note that “authoritarianism has increased in recent years as President Nayib Bukele has undermined institutions and the rule of law, and persecuted civil society organizations and independent journalists.”
