Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Salvadoran judicial authorities to ensure a swift, open, and fair trial for lawyer Ruth López, detained for exactly one year. López, a human rights defender and critic of President Nayib Bukele, was arrested on May 18, 2025, on charges of embezzlement, later changed to illicit enrichment by the Attorney General's Office.
In a statement, Juanita Goebertus, HRW's director for the Americas, said: “Ruth López spent years warning that President Bukele was dismantling the institutions that protect Salvadorans from abuse of power.” The organization also calls for the lawyer to be allowed regular contact with her family and lawyers.
López is held at the Izalco Penitentiary Farm, 60 km from the capital, awaiting the preliminary hearing scheduled for June. Her case remains under judicial seal, with evidence not presented in a public hearing, according to HRW. The organization notes that “the judge has not publicly articulated a reason for keeping the case under judicial seal.”
The lawyer worked on filing constitutional challenges, transparency reports, and complaints to the Attorney General's Office about irregular use of state funds, and participated in sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on El Salvador. In December 2024, she was included by the BBC in the list of the 100 most influential women in the world.
HRW points out that “the use of indefinite pretrial detention against López and other government critics reflects a broader pattern in El Salvador, where successive legal changes adopted since 2022 have dismantled due process guarantees, including limits on pretrial detention, and allowed mass hearings of hundreds of defendants.” Most of these measures were implemented under the state of emergency in effect since March 2022.