El Salvador arrests a prominent human rights lawyer on corruption charges

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador arrested an anticorruption lawyer from one of the country’s premier human rights organizations, alleging she participated in the embezzlement of funds when she held a government position earlier in her career.

Ruth Eleonora López’s organization, Cristosal, on Monday condemned the arrest a day earlier, which it described as a “short-term enforced disappearance,” and demanded the government provide information on her whereabouts.

Cristosal has been one of the most outspoken critics of some of President Nayib Bukele’s policies, especially the ongoing three-year state of emergency, which has suspended some fundamental rights related to due process, while the government fights the country’s gangs.

The measure restricts the right to gather, to be informed of rights and to have access to a lawyer. It extends to 15 days the time that someone can be held without charges. Some 85,000 people have been arrested under the state of emergency.

López is the head of Cristosal’s Anti-Corruption Unit, which has produced dozens of reports and filed legal actions related to government corruption.

López’s team has “repeatedly documented and denounced the lack of respect of due process in El Salvador, as well as the use of government institutions to repress critical voices,” Cristosal said. “We have also revealed torture, mistreatment and death in prisons.”

Neither López’s family nor her legal team knew where she was taken after police removed her from her home around 11 p.m. Sunday, Cristosal said in a statement.

“The authorities’ refusal to disclose her location or to allow access to her legal representatives is a blatant violation of due process, the right to legal defense and international standards of judicial protection,” Cristosal said.

The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment about López’s arrest. The president’s office declined to comment.

The alleged wrongdoing dates to her time as an adviser to Eugenio Chicas, the former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal during the administration of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2021).

Chicas moved from the court to the Cabinet of Sánchez Cerén and also served as a congressman. Last November, he and some of his relatives were convicted in a civil case for illegal enrichment between 2009 and 2021.

Chicas, who was detained in February, is now being prosecuted on criminal charges of illegal enrichment.

The Attorney General’s Office alleged that López had been involved in Chicas’ embezzlement.