Ruth López is a tireless Salvadoran advocate in the fight against corruption and in defense of transparency and human rights. She is a lawyer, human rights defender, professor, and mother. She has an extensive background in constitutional law, transparency, administrative justice, and electoral law. Her technical and rigorous work at the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) left a positive legacy through advances in transparency, professionalization, and access to public information. Ruth is the head of Cristosal’s Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit, where she has led key actions to demand accountability and protect the public interest.

A Legacy Recognized Around the World

Her work has been recognized by some of the world’s leading institutions dedicated to human rights, anti-corruption efforts, and the rule of law:

• December 2024: The BBC named her one of the 100 most influential and inspiring women in the world, recognizing her work promoting political transparency and public accountability.
• June 2025: Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience, recognizing that her detention is a result of her legitimate work as a human rights defender and not any criminal act.
• August 2025: The American Bar Association awarded her its International Human Rights Award, recognizing her commitment to defending the rule of law in contexts of repression.
• September 2025: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in her favor and called on the Salvadoran government to end her incommunicado detention and review her pretrial detention.
• November 2025: She received the 2025 Magnitsky Human Rights Award in London during a ceremony centered on “Recognizing those who defend human dignity in the face of repression and impunity.”
• November 2025: She received the “Right to Defend Rights” Award, granted by the Mesa por el Derecho a Defender Derechos together with the French Embassy and the organizations Fundación Acceso, Protection International, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).
• February 2026: She received the Anti-Corruption Hero Award from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Ruth was selected from more than 130 public nominations of people confronting organized crime and corruption while taking significant personal risks.
• March 2026: She received the Sir Henry Brooke Award 2026 for her work defending the rule of law, a recognition granted by the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk, an international network based in the United Kingdom that supports lawyers persecuted for defending the rule of law.

A Human Rights Defender Targeted by Power

Because of her high profile and national and international recognition, Ruth López became the target of constant smear campaigns driven by anonymous accounts, pro-government media outlets, and content creators aligned with the government. These attacks were part of an ongoing strategy to discredit her work as a human rights defender and advocate for transparency and anti-corruption efforts. She was also photographed by agents during public activities, and in November 2024, her name appeared on a leaked list of persons of interest from the National Civil Police (PNC), alongside journalists, union leaders, and other civil society figures. The leak, revealed by the Salvadoran press, exposed systematic and improper surveillance against those defending transparency and human rights in El Salvador. It was a clear sign of what was to come.

The Arrest

On May 18, 2025, at midnight, Ruth López was arbitrarily detained through deception outside her home by agents of the National Civil Police. What followed was a documented chain of irregularities:

• She was held incommunicado for more than 30 hours, without access to her family or legal team.
• The Attorney General’s Office filed charges after the constitutional 72-hour deadline had expired.
• The charges against her were changed during the proceedings, revealing the original lack of legal basis for the accusation.
• An unjustified gag order was imposed on the case, denying the principle of transparency that Ruth has always defended.
• Provisions associated with the state of exception—a mechanism designed to combat gangs—were arbitrarily and unconstitutionally applied against her.

A group of United Nations experts spoke out on her case, denouncing her short-term enforced disappearance and stating that her detention was an “abuse” intended to silence critical voices in El Salvador.

In June 2025, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court admitted the habeas corpus petition filed on her behalf, but declined to review whether her detention was arbitrary, instead transferring the case to a judge assigned to state of exception cases and turning the constitutional protection mechanism into a symbolic procedure. Ruth López lives with chronic hypertension and requires continuous access to medication. Her health condition has been a documented concern for international organizations since the first day of her detention.

International Support

Ruth’s detention prompted immediate statements from dozens of national and international figures. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Front Line Defenders described her arrest as an act of retaliation and criminalization. Coalitions of more than 100 organizations signed letters condemning her arbitrary detention and demanding her release.

The United States Senate and figures such as Representative Jamie Raskin also publicly called for her release.

Authoritarians love corruption and fear accountability. The arrest of long-time human rights defender Ruth López is another chilling attack on democracy by Bukele’s regime. Free Ruth NOW. https://t.co/afismm2jWP

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) June 9, 2025

Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, along with other UN experts through April 2026, also publicly demanded her release and sent a formal letter to the Salvadoran government.

Estoy siguiendo de cerca la audiencia contra la abogada y defensora de derechos humanos Ruth López en #ElSalvador. El Estado debe garantizar su derecho al debido proceso. Debe ser liberada.

— Mary Lawlor (@MaryLawlorhrds) June 4, 2025

Current Legal Situation

On June 4, 2025, Ruth appeared at her initial hearing, after which pretrial detention was ordered despite the evidence presented showing her ties to the community and lack of flight risk.

At that same hearing, and despite Ruth’s request for a “public trial,” the judge ordered the case to remain under total secrecy.

In December 2025, the period of pretrial detention was extended once again. As of May 18, 2026, Ruth has spent 365 days unjustly imprisoned, while the precautionary measures ordered by the IACHR continue to go unimplemented as originally mandated. Since July 4, 2025, Ruth has remained detained at Izalco Prison for denouncing corruption.

Her Work: What Made Her a Threat to Those in Power

Ruth led investigations that exposed systematic corruption practices within Nayib Bukele’s government. She documented the use of Pegasus spyware against journalists and human rights defenders, collected thousands of signatures opposing the Metallic Mining Law, and, true to her commitment to transparency, filed dozens of public information requests. During her work at Cristosal, Ruth López promoted legal actions that touched some of the government’s most sensitive interests:

• A complaint before the Court of Accounts regarding the irregular use of public funds to provide PPI security agents to individuals who did not meet the legal requirements.
• Legal action against the “Special Transitional Regime,” which allows state purchases without public bidding, bypassing constitutional oversight and opening the door to serious corruption risks.
• A constitutional challenge against reforms to the Bandesal Law, which classified information regarding the use of public funds.
• Complaints regarding the use of public funds in the implementation of Bitcoin, including a criminal complaint before the Attorney General’s Office over possible fraud related to the Chivo Wallet.
• Legal actions before the TSE challenging political parties’ failure to comply with transparency requirements related to campaign financing, as well as appeals against decisions restricting public access to that information.
• Complaints regarding alleged illicit enrichment, irregular property transfers, and the creation of ghost positions within state institutions.
• Corruption complaints during the pandemic: she filed actions before the Attorney General’s Office and the Court of Accounts regarding alleged corruption in the appropriation and sale of food packages under the Emergency Health Program (PES). She also requested an investigation into officials from the Attorney General’s Office for the possible failure to investigate these facts.
• Challenge to the reform on digital undercover agents: she filed a constitutional complaint against reforms to the Criminal Procedure Code allowing communications surveillance by digital undercover agents without judicial authorization, arguing that the reforms violated fundamental rights such as privacy and intimacy.
• Complaint regarding the use of Pegasus spyware: she publicly denounced the possible acquisition and use of the spyware by the government to monitor journalists and defenders and requested an investigation into the origin of the public funds that may have been used.
• Documented criticism of the state of exception: she has been one of the strongest voices against the state of exception implemented by Nayib Bukele’s government, denouncing arbitrary detentions, human rights violations, and the impact these measures have had in increasing migration among people with no ties to criminal organizations.
• Representation in international hearings: she represented Salvadoran organizations before the IACHR, where she requested the rejection of a constitutional reform that opened the door to immediate presidential reelection.
• “The Case of the 300,” documenting how public funds may have been delivered to gang structures without any institutional oversight.
• Complaint before the Government Ethics Tribunal (TEG) against Minister Francisco Alabí for irregular contracting during the pandemic, as well as requests regarding the irregular use of emergency funds from Fopromid.
• Defense of the Venezuelans sent to CECOT from the United States: from day one, she demanded that their rights be protected and that justice be upheld, regardless of their nationality or personal history. That—defending those no one else would defend—defines who Ruth López is.

What Her Case Represents

The detention of Ruth López is not an isolated case. It is the clearest expression of a systematic pattern of criminalization against those who defend legality, transparency, and human rights in El Salvador and across the region. It is also part of the same process that forced dozens of defenders, journalists, and justice operators into exile and that led to the approval of the Foreign Agents Law—passed without debate in the Legislative Assembly—just two days after her detention.

While Ruth remains imprisoned, the world continues counting the days. And she, consistent even in confinement, continues demanding the same thing she demanded from the very beginning:

“They will not silence me. I want a public trial.” #TenganDecencia