“An act of repression of critical voices.”
Thus has described Crystosal, the main organization dedicated to the defense of human rights in El Salvador, the arrest of one of its directives, Ruth López, on the night of this Sunday.
López, who as head of the Anti -Corruption and Justice Unit of the entity headed several investigations on the Nayib Bikele government, was recognized by the BBC as one of the 100 women more influential and inspiring in the world in 2024.
As published by the Attorney General of the Republic in the social network X, it is accused of alleged “peculation” or improper appropriation of state funds before starting their work in Chrysal.
The FGR, which does not give details about the alleged facts, dates back to its accusation to the time in which López was “trusted advisor and right hand of Eugenio Chicas during his two periods in the Supreme Electoral Court” (TSE).
Chicas, who was also arrested in February accused of illicit enrichment, had presided over the TSE and then served as Secretary of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic during the mandate of Salvador Sánchez Cerén (FMNL, 2014-2019).
“According to research and information collected in the raids carried out in the case of Eugenio Chicas, his active participation (López) has been identified in the facts that are charged to him,” says the publication of the FGR.
Electoral Law Specialist
Born in San Salvador on September 27, 1977, López spent 26 of her 47 years out of the country.
During the civil war that El Salvador (1980-1992), his family decided to move to Nicaragua, where he would live for 11 years, and, later, after the separation of his parents, López remained 16 years in Cuba.
It was there that she studied to be a lawyer, graduating in legal sciences from the University of Havana in 1999. He received the title with honors, as the best foreign student and best student of his Law Faculty.
In 2008 he returned to El Salvador, with the challenge of adapting to the academic and labor environment of a country that still dealt with the sequelae of the armed conflict and political transitions.
And in his native country he specialized in electoral law, human rights and commercial law, beginning his career in public institutions.
From 2008 to 2014 he worked in the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), focusing on the strengthening of democratic processes. And between 2014 and 2019 he participated in legal and administrative supervision at the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS).
Lopez has also dedicated himself to teaching in higher education institutions. She is the Associate Consultant and Professor of the Department of Legal Sciences at the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA).
Teaching has combined her with her position at the head of the Unit of Anti -Corruption and Justice of Chrysal, a regional organization committed to the defense of human rights.
From his position in the organization, López led a series of investigations, such as the one that denounced the alleged use of public funds to spy on journalists and human rights defenders or the alleged corruption when delivering public contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Through the media and social networks, the lawyer always maintained a critical position with power.
“From the perspective of power, it is better for people not to know, because as people do not know, they exercise less their rights,” he said in a Interview with the Alharaca media in March 2024.
“Act of repression”
“Have decency, this one day is going to end. They cannot be lent to this,” Lopez told the police who came to stop her at 11 p.m. this Sunday to her home, according to a recording to which the local media refers to the newspaper El Diario de Hoy.
“Here the only reason for the detention is that I am a human rights and work defender in an uncomfortable NGO to the government. That is the only problem. Here there is nothing to explain: that of peculation, of corruption, if here the one that investigates corruption is me,” he said.
Chrysal, in a first statement published after knowing López’s arrest, crossed out an “act of repression of critical voices,” while demanding the guarantee of his physical integrity and respect in due process.
Through a series of reports, Chrysal has denounced the violations of due process in El Salvador in the framework of the exception regime that already lasts more than three years.
In a second statement published at dawn, the entity informed that until that moment neither the family nor the legal team of López had managed to obtain information about their whereabouts.
International activists and organizations pronounced on detention.
“We continue with concern the capture of Ruth López, who has denounced the corruption and human rights violations of the Bukele government,” he wrote Juanita Goebertus, director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International also spoke through its official X account, demanding the immediate release of López.
The arrest takes place days after President Bukele announced that he would send to the Legislative Assembly, which controls his party new ideas, a new “Law of Foreign Agents” that seeks to financially suffocate the NGOs, retaining 30 % of their income.
It also occurs in the context of the arrest of another activist, Alejandro Henríquez, of the Water Forum, accused of the crimes of public disorders and resistance, after having shown their support for a group of peasants who protested in front of the president’s house asking not to evict them from their lands.
After the arrest of López, the presidential commissioner of Human Rights and Freedom of Expression, Andrés Guzmán Caballero, made his resignation public through your personal account in X and without explaining the reasons.
“I resign with gratitude and admiration, aware that the path to great changes is never straight or simple, but always necessary,” he wrote, attaching a letter dated May 15 addressed to President Bukele.