Latest news with #RuthLópez
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawyer for Venezuelans deported to El Salvador prison arrested
The head lawyer of a human rights group representing the families of Venezuelan immigrants imprisoned in El Salvador after being deported from the United States has been arrested. Ruth López, an outspoken critic of President Nayib Bukele, was detained late on Sunday under an order from the prosecutor's office which accused her of 'embezzlement' when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago, the human rights group Cristosal said in a statement. The prosecutor's office confirmed the arrest in a post on X. López runs Cristosal's anti-corruption and justice division and has been a vocal critic of Bukele's sweeping arrests of 85,000 mostly young men without due process under the state of exception that began in 2022. Neither López's family nor her legal team knew where she was taken after police removed her from her home shortly before midnight on Sunday. '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 defence and international standards of judicial protection,' Cristosal said in a statement. The arrest is part of an accelerating government crackdown on civil society and the free press as Bukele is apparently emboldened by his close relationship to the Trump administration, which is paying El Salvador to hold deported immigrants in its prison system. Related: Venezuelans deported by Trump are victims of 'torture', lawyers allege Earlier this month, seven journalists from the investigative news outlet El Faro, who had exposed details of Bukele's alleged deals with the country's gangs had to leave the country after they were tipped off that the government was preparing arrest warrants for them. Many other journalists and activists had already fled. In 2023, El Faro moved its business and legal operations to Costa Rica. Last week, after protesters gathered outside Bukele's house, he accused NGOs of 'manipulating' them and proposed a bill to tax 30% of all contributions to NGOs, echoing a law passed by Nicaragua's autocratic government to silence its critics. Shortly after López's arrest, Andrés Guzmán, Bukele's presidential commissioner for human rights and freedom of expression, announced his resignation, without giving a reason. In a statement, international organisations said they were 'deeply concerned at the increasingly pervasive environment of fear that threatens freedoms in the country' and called on 'US policymakers and the diplomatic community at large to urge President Bukele to cease all attacks against human rights defenders'.
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Bukele, emboldened by Trump, is arresting prominent critics
Police officers grabbed the shackled woman by each arm, leading her to the judge who would order her imprisonment. 'You won't silence me!' shouted Ruth López, a Bible in her hands, journalists crowding around her. 'What I want is a public trial! The people deserve to know!' The arrest of López, a prominent lawyer in El Salvador who helped uncover alleged government corruption, has become emblematic of the increasing authoritarianism of President Nayib Bukele. A judge on June 4 ordered López jailed pretrial for at least six months on charges of illegal enrichment, accusations her lawyers say are baseless. Days later, a second lawyer critical of Bukele, Enrique Anaya, was detained and accused of money laundering. Now the lawyers are being held in the same police station, not knowing when — or if — they will be freed. The arrests are part of an escalating crackdown by Bukele on the last bastion of dissent in a country where he already controls all state institutions, analysts and activists say. López's arrest and a new law targeting nongovernmental organizations have accelerated an exodus of civil society: In recent weeks, dozens of academics, lawyers, researchers, human rights defenders and journalists have fled the country. Their departures resemble the flights of critics from autocratic regimes in Nicaragua and Venezuela, but with a key difference. This time, the United States isn't condemning the repression — it's deepening ties with its author. The Trump administration, which is paying Bukele's government to imprison migrants deported from the United States, is praising his leadership and holding him up as a model for the region. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau traveled to El Salvador this week as part of his first foreign trip, the purpose of which was to 'further strengthen diplomatic ties and cooperation.' A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. is 'aware of the recent arrests of these Salvadoran nationals." 'The United States assesses that El Salvador will continue its strong commitment to investigate and prosecute cases involving embezzlement and other crimes against the people of El Salvador,' the spokesperson said. Bukele, credited with dismantling the country's gangs and dramatically reducing violence in what was once one of the most dangerous nations in Latin America, is widely popular at home and throughout the region. But the self-styled 'world's coolest dictator' has pacified El Salvador in part by detaining more than 85,000 people, often without due process, access to a lawyer or a proper trial — while tightening his grip on the country's Legislative Assembly and courts. Bukele has long been accused of human rights violations. But the recent arrests and threats, Noah Bullock said, are sending a more explicit, brazen message: 'You dissent and you will be punished.' 'It feels like overnight, El Salvador became an even more repressive regime,' said Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a human rights organization where López works. 'A person who likes to make jokes about being a dictator is now embracing it.' Bukele says he's unbothered by critics. 'I don't care if they call me a dictator,' he told Salvadoran lawmakers this month. 'I'd rather be called a dictator than see Salvadorans killed in the streets.' But with each week, the threats have intensified. Last month, a group of journalists from El Salvador's premier investigative news source fled the country after getting word of possible arrest warrants against them. When journalists from that outlet, El Faro, prepared to reenter the country this week, according to the El Salvador press association, they learned police officers were planning to arrest them at the airport. When hundreds of people gathered outside Bukele's house last month to protest an eviction order, he arrested a human rights advocate and evangelical pastor who had aided them. He later accused nongovernmental organizations of 'manipulating' protesters and proposed a 'foreign agents' bill to tax foreign contributions to NGOs at 30 percent. The Salvadoran legislature, controlled by Bukele, approved it. The European Union condemned the new law, saying it 'risks restricting civil society actors' access to funding, which is essential for their functioning and vital to any healthy democracy.' The bloc also expressed concern over the recent detentions of human rights defenders: 'The shrinking space for civil society risks undermining development and could negatively impact cooperation.' Bukele responded with insults: 'El Salvador regrets that a bloc which is aging, overregulated, energy-dependent, tech-lagging, and led by unelected bureaucrats still insists on lecturing the rest of the world.' Many of the researchers and human rights defenders who now feel targeted have previously worked closely with the United States, and some worked on projects that received U.S. aid that is now cut off. Some of those who have fled the country advocated for detainees in the country's expanding prison system, including the Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration to the megaprison known as CECOT. Others documented alleged corruption or human rights violations, and shared their findings at times with U.S. government agencies. As director of Legal Humanitarian Aid, which advocates for people detained arbitrarily in El Salvador, human rights lawyer Ingrid Escobar is accustomed to being surveilled by the Bukele government. Last week, she learned she was on a list of possible targets for imminent arrest. She had scheduled an urgent surgery in El Salvador for this week. But days before, she took her children, 11 and 9, and fled the country. If she did not, she feared, she might be detained and denied the medical treatment she needed. 'If I stayed in El Salvador,' she said, 'I could have died.' Under previous U.S. administrations, one lawyer said, the U.S. Embassy would have been seen as an important partner in advocating for the release of López. 'In El Salvador,' the lawyer said, 'we're alone.' She spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for her family's safety. López was detained at her home late at night on May 18, summoned outside by police officers who claimed they needed to tell her about a report of a car accident. Instead, they arrested her and accused her of embezzlement. That charge was later changed to illegal enrichment. The attorney general's office said the charges stemmed from her work with a magistrate and former electoral official, Eugenio Chicas, who was arrested in February on charges of illicit enrichment. Bullock said López's role in that work didn't involve managing money. Her lawyer and Cristosal have said her arrest was retaliation for her work exposing government corruption. López helped file criminal complaints against officials with the attorney general's office. In one, she alleged that money intended to support families during the covid-19 pandemic was sent to gang leaders. In another, she alleged corruption in the country's prison system. Because of this work, Cristosal fears she will be in danger if she is transferred to a jail under the custody of the prison system director she denounced. On the day of López's hearing before a judge, Anaya, a constitutional lawyer, defended López and criticized the police who pushed her as she made her way through the crowd. 'They do it to prevent Ruth from speaking to the press, cowards!' he wrote on X. 'I will see the dictator and all his lackeys burn in hell.' The following day, Bukele targeted those who he said 'spent the entire day publicly threatening anyone who supports or works for the government.' Some of those critics, he said on X, had 'clear ties to criminals.' 'The days of impunity are over,' he threatened. 'Don't say you weren't warned.' Anaya was arrested less than two days later. He was placed in a cell next to López's.
The Independent
04-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
El Salvador human rights lawyer demands public trial as police haul her before judge
A lawyer from a prominent human rights organization who has been an outspoken critic of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies demanded a public trial as police brought her before a judge in El Salvador Wednesday. Prosecutors sought to charge her with illegal enrichment and jail her for six months pending trial. Observers say the case against Ruth Eleonora López is retaliation for her work while authorities allege she aided one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. Authorities arrested López at her home on May 18. The anticorruption lawyer, who works for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, has denied the accusations. Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public as the case is under seal. As she was escorted by police through the court building Wednesday, a shackled López with a Bible between her hands, shouted: 'They're not going to silence me, I want a public trial,' according to a brief video posted by Cristosal on X. 'The people have to know.' She had not made her initial appearance before a judge until Monday, more than two weeks after her arrest. At that hearing, prosecutors announced the illegal enrichment, different from the original embezzlement, and requested that she be held while they continue to investigate. Cristosal has been an critic of some of Bukele's policies, including the state of emergency giving him special powers that has now been in place for more than three years. 'Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,' Cristosal said in a statement last week. 'Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.'
Associated Press
04-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
El Salvador human rights lawyer demands public trial as police haul her before judge
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A lawyer from a prominent human rights organization who has been an outspoken critic of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies demanded a public trial as police brought her before a judge in El Salvador Wednesday. Prosecutors sought to charge her with illegal enrichment and jail her for six months pending trial. Observers say the case against Ruth Eleonora López is retaliation for her work while authorities allege she aided one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. Authorities arrested López at her home on May 18. The anticorruption lawyer, who works for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, has denied the accusations. Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public as the case is under seal. As she was escorted by police through the court building Wednesday, a shackled López with a Bible between her hands, shouted: 'They're not going to silence me, I want a public trial,' according to a brief video posted by Cristosal on X. 'The people have to know.' She had not made her initial appearance before a judge until Monday, more than two weeks after her arrest. At that hearing, prosecutors announced the illegal enrichment, different from the original embezzlement, and requested that she be held while they continue to investigate. Cristosal has been an critic of some of Bukele's policies, including the state of emergency giving him special powers that has now been in place for more than three years. 'Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,' Cristosal said in a statement last week. 'Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.'
Associated Press
02-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
A lawyer's prolonged detention shows how El Salvador's gang emergency extends to common crimes
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador's arrest of an anticorruption lawyer from a well-known human rights organization last month is the latest example of how special powers given to President Nayib Bukele to battle the country's gangs are being applied to a host of unrelated alleged crimes. Police arrested Ruth Eleonora López at her home on May 18, for allegedly aiding one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. López has denied the accusations, but two weeks later she has yet to appear before a judge or be formally charged. El Salvador's constitution gives authorities 72 hours to bring someone before a judge after an arrest. But criminal defense attorneys say most of the cases they see — drunk driving, robberies, sexual assaults — now aren't brought before a judge until 15 days after the arrest, the maximum allowed under the state of emergency the country's Congress approved in March 2022. That month, Bukele asked lawmakers for extraordinary powers to respond to a gang massacre. Among the rights the Congress agreed to suspend were that window to take a prisoner before a judge, as well as fundamental protections like access to a lawyer. Since then, more than 86,000 people have been arrested for alleged ties to gangs, with 90% still awaiting trial. But untold others – the attorney general's office did not respond to a request for statistics – have been treated in the same manner for alleged crimes having nothing to do with the gangs. While the constitutional rights are suspended, the expansion into crimes unrelated to gangs is legal, but abusive, lawyers say. In an address to the nation Sunday night about the first year of his new term, Bukele brushed off criticism of his heavy-handed tactics. 'I don't care that they call me dictator,' he said. 'I prefer they call me dictator than see how they kill Salvadorans in the streets. I prefer they call me dictator, but Salvadorans can finally live in peace. Let them keep arguing semantics and we're going to continue to be focused on results.' 'They say we jail human rights defenders, dissidents, opponents of the regime,' Bukele said. 'I think to myself, 'How are we going to battle corruption if all the opposition has guaranteed impunity?'' With the gangs' severely weakened by the government's own accounts, human rights organizations in El Salvador – like Cristosal where López worked – and from abroad like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have called for the end of the emergency declaration . They say the justification no longer exists, and rights should be restored. Instead, lawyers say the extended state of emergency has become the norm, rather than the exception. 'They've generalized it,' said Oswaldo Feusier, lawyer and professor at the José Simeón Cañas Central American University, adding that more and more judges are applying the exceptional rules to a broader array of crimes. 'To me it's an abuse of the spirit of the decree.' Just this month, Bukele called — via the social platform X — for the arrest of the heads of bus companies he said had ignored his call to provide free service during the closure of a major highway. The government said it would reimburse them. Despite arrests May 5 through May 7, the 12 people detained weren't formally charged until May 19. On May 12, dozens of people from an agricultural cooperative protested an eviction outside Bukele's home. One participant was arrested May 12 and another May 13 for alleged public disorder and aggressive resistance. Their cases weren't brought before a judge until May 27. The president also used the protest as an example of why the Congress should pass a foreign agents law — which it did days later — because he said they had been 'manipulated by globalist NGOs.' The law would require all non-governmental organizations who receive international donations to register as 'foreign agents' and the government can then impose a tax of 30%. Jayme Magaña, a criminal defense lawyer working with an initiative called Wings of Freedom that seeks to draw attention to human rights violations, said she has seen the exceptions under the state of emergency applied to a variety of cases including sexual crimes, drunk driving and robberies. 'They're applying 15 days to the majority,' she said. 'This is because the courts are saturated.' Criminal attorney Carlos Avelar said that since the state of emergency suspends constitutional guarantees, it can be applied to all crimes. 'If they arrest someone, if the prosecutor wants to apply the 15-day term, he does it,' he said. He estimated that 80% of the cases he sees in the courts now start 15 days after the arrest. López's 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 (2014-2019). 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. 'Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,' Cristosal said in a statement last week, noting that she still had not been formally charged. 'Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.'
