SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — El Salvador arrested an anticorruption lawyer from one of the country's premier human rights organizations, alleging she participated in the embezzlement of funds when she held a government position earlier in her career.
Ruth Eleonora López's organization, Cristosal, on Monday condemned the arrest a day earlier, which it described as a ''short-term enforced disappearance,'' and demanded the government provide information on her whereabouts.
Cristosal has been one of the most outspoken critics of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies, especially the ongoing three-year state of emergency, which has suspended some fundamental rights related to due process, while the government fights the country's gangs.
The measure restricts the right to gather, to be informed of rights and to have access to a lawyer. It extends to 15 days the time that someone can be held without charges. Some 85,000 people have been arrested under the state of emergency.
López is the head of Cristosal's Anti-Corruption Unit, which has produced dozens of reports and filed legal actions related to government corruption.
López's team has ''repeatedly documented and denounced the lack of respect of due process in El Salvador, as well as the use of government institutions to repress critical voices," Cristosal said. "We have also revealed torture, mistreatment and death in prisons.''
Neither López's family nor her legal team knew where she was taken after police removed her from her home around 11 p.m. Sunday, Cristosal said in a statement.
''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 defense and international standards of judicial protection,'' Cristosal said.
