Latest news with #RuthLópez
The Independent
4 hours ago
- 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
4 hours ago
- 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
2 days ago
- 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.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘We are under a dictatorship.' Six years into his rule, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele tightens his grip
Nayib Bukele, the self-declared 'world's coolest dictator,' will mark six years as El Salvador's president on Sunday, a period defined by contentious reforms, which critics say have brought peace to the streets at an incredibly high price. His iron-fisted crackdown on crime in the country, that was once the most violent nation in the western hemisphere, led to the arrest and detention of around 87,000 people, often with little due process. The government has defended the move, pointing to significant reductions in gang violence nationwide, but opponents say it has come at the cost of mass incarceration and the erosion of civil liberties. The dragnet expanded as time wore on to include civil society groups and journalists investigating official collusion with the country's gangs, critics say. On May 19, Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer for the human rights group Cristosal, who is also a prominent critic of Bukele, was detained by Salvadoran authorities for allegedly stealing 'funds from state coffers.' However, López still has not been charged with a crime despite remaining in detention. Soon after Lopez was arrested, Bukele's government passed a law taxing foreign donations to NGOs like Cristosal at 30%, which rights groups have described as an existential threat. 'What we have seen is a massive concentration of power in (Bukele's) hands,' Juan Pappier, deputy director for Latin America at Human Rights Watch, said of Bukele's six years in power. Bukele's rule has been 'based on demolition of the checks and balances of democracy and increasing efforts to silence and intimidate critics.' The reduction of gang-related crime in El Salvador has made Bukele popular in the Central American nation, so much so that he was reelected in a landslide victory last year, even though the country's constitution had barred anyone standing for a second term. (Bukele's allies in Congress eventually replaced the Supreme Court's top justices with judges willing to interpret the constitution in his favor.) Since March 2022, the country has been under a 'state of exception,' allowing the suspension of numerous constitutional rights. In the capital San Salvador, many people say they now feel safe walking through neighborhoods once considered dangerous. Though they acknowledge the country has seen a massive increase in incarcerations and a suspension of rights, Bukele's supporters believe the resulting peace and security has been worth the tradeoff. Not everyone agrees. Samuel Ramírez, founder of the Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR), a human rights group that works with families of people believed to have been detained without due process, says thousands have been arrested over unfounded suspicions of being linked to gangs. Bukele has previously admitted that some innocent people have been detained by mistake but said that several thousand have already been released. Ramírez and other activists believe that many are too afraid to speak publicly. 'Here we see soldiers armed to the teeth in the streets, the police, even armored trucks in the streets — tanks. That's synonymous with a country at war,' he said. 'The gangs, for me, have already been neutralized. And now the war is against the people, so they don't demonstrate, don't speak out.' Though he presents himself as a law-and-order leader, Bukele has long faced allegations that he negotiated the peaceful security situation in El Salvador through back-door dealings with the gangs. In 2021, the Biden administration accused Bukele's regime of bribing MS-13 and Barrio 18, two of the most notorious gangs in El Salvador, to 'ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low.' Alleged payoffs included cash, cell phones and prostitutes for imprisoned capos. Bukele promptly denied the allegations, calling them an 'obvious lie.' But four years later, independent newsroom El Faro published an explosive interview with two self-styled gang leaders from Barrio 18 who claimed that, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, they had intimidated voters into casting their ballots for Bukele during his 2015 bid for mayor of San Salvador. The two men gang leaders also claimed that when he became president in 2019, Bukele had arranged that the most powerful gangs in El Salvador refrain from wanton murder and extortion, lest they make him look bad, El Faro reported. Bukele has not yet responded publicly to their allegations, but obliquely referenced the reporting from El Faro in a post on May 10, sarcastically implying the only 'pact' he made with the gang leaders involved putting them in prison. The journalists from El Faro who broke the story fled the country before it was published, anticipating arrest. 'I think Bukele will try to put us in jail. I have no doubt about that. I have no doubt, after what he did to Ruth López, that Bukele has decided to raise the bar and persecute those he considers the most visible critics in El Salvador,' El Faro Editor-in-Chief Óscar Martínez told CNN. He said seven of the publication's journalists are facing arrest warrants for reporting on the alleged deals. Even so, he said the newspaper would continue its journalistic work. For the past two years, the publication has been running most of its operations in exile from Costa Rica. 'If there was any semblance of democracy left in El Salvador, it was in independent journalism,' said Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal. CNN has reached out to the presidency for comments. 'We are under a dictatorship' Last week, Bukele's government passed a law taxing foreign donations to NGOs at 30%. He had proposed a similar law in 2021, but it didn't pass. In any case, Bullock says that it's irrelevant whether any law is proposed, passed or tabled in El Salvador: after six years of virtually unfettered power, Bukele is a law in and of himself. Gracia Grande, the program officer at the Salvadoran branch of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, told CNN that the law is an existential threat to her NGO's work. She said the law will make it impossible for them to continue working. It gives them three months to renew their registration as an NGO, but they don't know how the process will work. Grande's assessment of the situation is unambiguous: 'Right now, we can say very openly that we are under a dictatorship.' Despite the growing outrage from rights groups, Bukele's punishing penal system has won him fans. US President Donald Trump has praised the crackdown and cut a deal with Bukele, who agreed to hold hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in El Salvador's Center for Terrorism Confinement, alongside thousands of detained Salvadorans. Known as Cecot, the mega-prison is considered the largest penitentiary in the Americas and is notorious for the spartan conditions, which rights organizations have denounced as inhumane. 'I think what is happening here is a kind of laboratory for what could happen in other countries,' NGO worker Grande warned. 'Even the United States.' During Trump's April meeting with Bukele at the White House, Bukele suggested the US president follow his lead when it comes to mass detentions. 'Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate, you know,' Bukele said of the US population. 'But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. You know, that's the way it works, right?'
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
‘We are under a dictatorship.' Six years into his rule, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele tightens his grip
Nayib Bukele, the self-declared 'world's coolest dictator,' will mark six years as El Salvador's president on Sunday, a period defined by contentious reforms, which critics say have brought peace to the streets at an incredibly high price. His iron-fisted crackdown on crime in the country, that was once the most violent nation in the western hemisphere, led to the arrest and detention of around 87,000 people, often with little due process. The government has defended the move, pointing to significant reductions in gang violence nationwide, but opponents say it has come at the cost of mass incarceration and the erosion of civil liberties. The dragnet expanded as time wore on to include civil society groups and journalists investigating official collusion with the country's gangs, critics say. On May 19, Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer for the human rights group Cristosal, who is also a prominent critic of Bukele, was detained by Salvadoran authorities for allegedly stealing 'funds from state coffers.' However, López still has not been charged with a crime despite remaining in detention. Soon after Lopez was arrested, Bukele's government passed a law taxing foreign donations to NGOs like Cristosal at 30%, which rights groups have described as an existential threat. 'What we have seen is a massive concentration of power in (Bukele's) hands,' Juan Pappier, deputy director for Latin America at Human Rights Watch, said of Bukele's six years in power. Bukele's rule has been 'based on demolition of the checks and balances of democracy and increasing efforts to silence and intimidate critics.' The reduction of gang-related crime in El Salvador has made Bukele popular in the Central American nation, so much so that he was reelected in a landslide victory last year, even though the country's constitution had barred anyone standing for a second term. (Bukele's allies in Congress eventually replaced the Supreme Court's top justices with judges willing to interpret the constitution in his favor.) Since March 2022, the country has been under a 'state of exception,' allowing the suspension of numerous constitutional rights. In the capital San Salvador, many people say they now feel safe walking through neighborhoods once considered dangerous. Though they acknowledge the country has seen a massive increase in incarcerations and a suspension of rights, Bukele's supporters believe the resulting peace and security has been worth the tradeoff. Not everyone agrees. Samuel Ramírez, founder of the Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR), a human rights group that works with families of people believed to have been detained without due process, says thousands have been arrested over unfounded suspicions of being linked to gangs. Bukele has previously admitted that some innocent people have been detained by mistake but said that several thousand have already been released. Ramírez and other activists believe that many are too afraid to speak publicly. 'Here we see soldiers armed to the teeth in the streets, the police, even armored trucks in the streets — tanks. That's synonymous with a country at war,' he said. 'The gangs, for me, have already been neutralized. And now the war is against the people, so they don't demonstrate, don't speak out.' Though he presents himself as a law-and-order leader, Bukele has long faced allegations that he negotiated the peaceful security situation in El Salvador through back-door dealings with the gangs. In 2021, the Biden administration accused Bukele's regime of bribing MS-13 and Barrio 18, two of the most notorious gangs in El Salvador, to 'ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low.' Alleged payoffs included cash, cell phones and prostitutes for imprisoned capos. Bukele promptly denied the allegations, calling them an 'obvious lie.' But four years later, independent newsroom El Faro published an explosive interview with two self-styled gang leaders from Barrio 18 who claimed that, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, they had intimidated voters into casting their ballots for Bukele during his 2015 bid for mayor of San Salvador. The two men gang leaders also claimed that when he became president in 2019, Bukele had arranged that the most powerful gangs in El Salvador refrain from wanton murder and extortion, lest they make him look bad, El Faro reported. Bukele has not yet responded publicly to their allegations, but obliquely referenced the reporting from El Faro in a post on May 10, sarcastically implying the only 'pact' he made with the gang leaders involved putting them in prison. The journalists from El Faro who broke the story fled the country before it was published, anticipating arrest. 'I think Bukele will try to put us in jail. I have no doubt about that. I have no doubt, after what he did to Ruth López, that Bukele has decided to raise the bar and persecute those he considers the most visible critics in El Salvador,' El Faro Editor-in-Chief Óscar Martínez told CNN. He said seven of the publication's journalists are facing arrest warrants for reporting on the alleged deals. Even so, he said the newspaper would continue its journalistic work. For the past two years, the publication has been running most of its operations in exile from Costa Rica. 'If there was any semblance of democracy left in El Salvador, it was in independent journalism,' said Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal. CNN has reached out to the presidency for comments. 'We are under a dictatorship' Last week, Bukele's government passed a law taxing foreign donations to NGOs at 30%. He had proposed a similar law in 2021, but it didn't pass. In any case, Bullock says that it's irrelevant whether any law is proposed, passed or tabled in El Salvador: after six years of virtually unfettered power, Bukele is a law in and of himself. Gracia Grande, the program officer at the Salvadoran branch of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, told CNN that the law is an existential threat to her NGO's work. She said the law will make it impossible for them to continue working. It gives them three months to renew their registration as an NGO, but they don't know how the process will work. Grande's assessment of the situation is unambiguous: 'Right now, we can say very openly that we are under a dictatorship.' Despite the growing outrage from rights groups, Bukele's punishing penal system has won him fans. US President Donald Trump has praised the crackdown and cut a deal with Bukele, who agreed to hold hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in El Salvador's Center for Terrorism Confinement, alongside thousands of detained Salvadorans. Known as Cecot, the mega-prison is considered the largest penitentiary in the Americas and is notorious for the spartan conditions, which rights organizations have denounced as inhumane. 'I think what is happening here is a kind of laboratory for what could happen in other countries,' NGO worker Grande warned. 'Even the United States.' During Trump's April meeting with Bukele at the White House, Bukele suggested the US president follow his lead when it comes to mass detentions. 'Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate, you know,' Bukele said of the US population. 'But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. You know, that's the way it works, right?'
