In May 2025, my wife, Ruth López, was detained by Salvadoran authorities. Ruth is an anticorruption lawyer who directed the Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit at Cristosal, a Central American human rights organization. Her efforts focused on investigations of corruption, including alleged misuse of pandemic funds and fraud relating to El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. Her work was thorough, legal, and public.
Ruth gained recognition both locally and internationally. Two years back, the BBC named her one of the 100 most influential women globally. We believed her prominence offered her some protection, yet it appears to have led to her arrest on groundless charges, without any opportunity for defense.
In the United States, people generally associate El Salvador with President Nayib Bukele, known for his authoritarian leadership. Last year, he collaborated with President Trump to detain hundreds of Venezuelan migrants at Bukele’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has reportedly made Salvadoran streets safer.
However, the crackdown has exacted a heavy toll, now serving as a means to quash dissent. Since a state of emergency declaration over four years ago, Bukele has detained around 90,000 individuals in mass raids, nearly 2% of El Salvador’s adult population. Most detainees are denied family contact and legal representation, languishing for years without trial. Their families are left uncertain about their survival.
The raids indiscriminately targeted both guilty and innocent individuals, and amidst passive courts, the innocent lack a fair trial chance. The government has moved to process cases collectively, trying hundreds of prisoners simultaneously. Prison terms are often indefinite, with legislative changes allowing life sentences to be applied to children as young as 12.