Tell Congress: Free Ruth Lopez. Fight authoritarian repression.
Members of Congress and the Senate
Salvadoran human rights lawyer Ruth López has now spent one year in prison without trial.
Ruth is a human rights defender and anti-corruption advocate who has dedicated her career to justice and accountability in El Salvador. As head of Cristosal’s Anti-Corruption Unit, she investigated major corruption cases, presented criminal complaints to the Salvadoran Attorney General, represented victims of fraud related to the use of Bitcoin as an official currency, and defended democratic norms through strategic litigation before the Salvadoran Constitutional Court.
In March 2025, following an agreement between the Trump administration and President Bukele to transfer more than 200 Venezuelans and Salvadorans to El Salvador’s CECOT prison without due process or legal representation, Ruth was among the few lawyers willing to challenge these actions.
Ruth filed 76 habeas corpus petitions on behalf of families seeking basic information about the whereabouts of their loved ones. Shortly afterward, she herself was detained.
Ruth was arrested at her home on May 18, 2025, without a judicial warrant and without prior investigation. She has remained in pretrial detention ever since. For much of that time, she has been held incommunicado, with severely restricted communication with her family and legal defense team. Despite her request for a public trial, proceedings in her case have remained closed to the public, raising serious concerns about due process, transparency, and judicial independence.
More than 500 legal and civil society groups have called for her release, including Amnesty International, which designated her a prisoner of conscience. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also issued precautionary measures regarding her case.
The United States cannot stay silent on this atrocity.
Tell Congress: Fight authoritarian repression. Advocate for Ruth López.
For information on Ruth and more ways you can help, click here
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To:
Members of Congress and the Senate
From:
[Your Name]
The Salvadoran government's arbitrary detention of human rights defender Ruth López is wrong, and undermines democracy and the rule of law that the United States claims to support. I'm writing today to ask you to stand against this harmful repression and to use U.S. diplomatic leverage to secure her freedom now.
Ruth is exactly the kind of leader we should be protecting. She is a trained lawyer who chose to use her skills to defend the vulnerable. She has uncovered government corruption, represented deported migrants, challenged unconstitutional laws, and fought for transparency in government spending.
For her work, Ruth has received numerous honors, including the International Human Rights Award from the American Bar Association, the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, and the OCCRP Anti-Crime and Corruption Hero Award. Amnesty International has declared her a prisoner of conscience, which means she is imprisoned solely for her beliefs, and has never advocated for or used violence.
Since July 2025, Ruth has been held at the Izalco Penitentiary Center, with minimal contact with her family and her lawyers. The charges against her have been proven baseless. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights determined she faces "cruel and inhumane treatment" and risk of irreparable harm to her life and integrity.
More than five hundred legal and civil society organizations, including the New York Bar Association, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, and the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF) have denounced her arrest and demanded her immediate release.
In consideration of all of this, I’m writing today to ask you to:
Publicly call for Ruth's immediate release and condemn her arbitrary detention.
Introduce or support legislation conditioning U.S. security assistance to El Salvador on human rights improvements.
Request a State Department briefing on U.S. efforts to secure Ruth's freedom.
Support the IACHR's precautionary measures demanding an end to her detention.
Coordinate with international allies to apply diplomatic pressure on the Bukele government.
Sincerely,