Throughout the beginning of Nayib Bukele’s second presidential term, El Salvador has experienced an alarming increase in the harassment, persecution and criminalization of human rights defenders, journalists, activists, critical voices and civil society organizations. In this context, Amnesty International today names lawyer Ruth López, environmental defender Alejandro Henríquez and pastor and community leader José Ángel Pérez as prisoners of conscience and demands their immediate and unconditional release.
“These detentions are not isolated events. They are part of a systematic pattern of criminalization that seeks to silence those who denounce abuses, demand justice, and demand transparency in public administration. The intensification of this pattern in recent weeks is a clear warning sign of the speed with which Nayib Bukele’s government is dismantling civic space,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“The designation of Ruth, Alejandro and José Ángel as prisoners of conscience is an act of denunciation and a show of solidarity with the community of human rights defenders and civil society organizations in El Salvador. It is also an urgent call to the international community to use all possible means to stop this authoritarian and repressive drift and to demand that the Salvadoran authorities stop the criminalization of human rights defenders and the persecution of civil society organizations and independent media and journalists.”
Amnesty International’s designation of an individual as a prisoner of conscience is based on a rigorous analysis of the circumstances of their detention. This status implies that the individual has been deprived of their liberty solely because of his or her beliefs or protected characteristics or both and who has not used violence or advocated violence or hatred in the circumstances leading to their detention. It does not imply an endorsement of their views or affiliations, but a defense of their right to express them without being persecuted for doing so.
Ruth López, lawyer and the head of Cristosal’s Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit, was arrested on 18 May 2025 on initial charges of embezzlement. Subsequently, 15 days after her arrest, the Attorney General’s Office switched the charge to illicit enrichment. According to the information available to Amnesty International, there is no evidence pointing to any reasonable suspicion of her involvement in those crimes. She was detained in violation of fair trial standards and under judicial secrecy, which has been widely condemned by international organizations and regionaland universal protection mechanisms.
Ruth is nationally and internationally known for her fight against corruption and her defense of the rule of law. In 2024, the BBC named her one of the 100 most influential women in the world.
Alejandro Henríquez, a lawyer and environmental defender, was arrested on 13 May 2025 for his participation in a peaceful protest against the forced eviction faced by the El Bosque community, home to more than 300 families. Since his arrest, he has been denied immediate and full access to his legal defense or information about his situation.
Following a judge’s decision to impose six months of pre-trial detention, Alejandro was transferred to La Esperanza prison, where he now is being held incommunicado and faces extreme overcrowding and the risk of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment—including torture.
José Ángel Pérez, an evangelical pastor, day laborer and president of the El Bosque cooperative, was arrested on the same day of the peaceful protest and for the same events as Alejandro. He has worked as a community leader and helped his parishioners fight for their rights for more than 25 years. His criminalization is yet another attempt to discourage collective action from rural communities.
Jose and Alejandro were charged with public disorder and resistance, although, according to the information available to Amnesty International, the prosecution failed to show that there was a reasonable suspicion of their involvement in those crimes.
From institutional co-optation to a policy of mass arrests and selective criminalization
The misuse of the criminal justice system on a large scale would not have been possible without the previous structural reforms promoted by President Bukele and the Legislative Assembly – controlled by the ruling party – which have progressively dismantled institutional checks and balances. Among the most emblematic measures was the irregular dismissal, in May 2021, of the magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Attorney General. On top of that came the reform approved that September, which forced the mandatory retirement of hundreds of judges and prosecutors over the age of 60, without their replacements being appointed through transparent processes or based on technical criteria, thus seriously weakening the independence of the judiciary.
Institutional capture deepened in 2022 with the establishment of the state of exception, which has remained in force continuously and has been extended on more than 39 occasions; without proper evaluation or discussion, and without internal counterweights, it risks becoming the new norm. In this context, and under the official discourse of the fight against gangs, multiple reforms have been approved to different bodies of law that have systematically eroded due process guarantees. The right to a fair trial in El Salvador has been practically dismantled, giving way to a legal framework that permits and justifies arbitrary detention, the holding of mass hearings, the use of judges with reserved identities, excessive restrictions on the right to an effective defense,and the elimination of limits on pre-trial detention, among other regressions. This new regulatory framework has resulted in the detention of more than 86,000 people, generating an unprecedented prison crisis and an avalanche of complaints of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, and deaths in state custody that to date remain inadequately investigated.
Amnesty International and local human rights organizations had already warned about the volatile situation and increased risks that human rights defenders and critical voices were suffering in this context, given the weaponization of the state of exception to criminalize themand the authoritarian practices implemented by President Bukele. As of March 2024, 34 such cases had been reported by local organizations, including the case of a mother searching for a missing loved one.
“El Salvador is at a tipping point. The submission of the judiciary and the approval of regressive reforms have allowed the Bukele government to build an institutional and regulatory architecture designed to legalize the control, repression, and criminalization of people living in poverty and expressing dissent . Now, under the guise of fighting corruption, Bukele intends to use these same tools to attack those who make him uncomfortable. Through opaque processes and new regulations, he seeks to consolidate the systematic silencing of dissent. The international community must act decisively,” said Ana Piquer, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
Sustained escalation and a law to silence civil society
According to data from the Mesa por el Derecho a Defender Derechos (Roundtable for the Right to Defend Rights), attacks against human rights defenders and journalists have increasedsignificantly in recent years, with 100 documented cases in 2020, 185 in 2021 and 182 in 2022. This rose to 226 attacks in 2023 and 533 in 2024 – a 433% rise from 2020.from 2020.
The recent approval of the Law on Foreign Agents has consolidated the trend of closing civic space in El Salvador. This law imposes arbitrary restrictions on the right to freedom of association and expression, including a 30% tax on international funding of NGOs, and allows for their dissolution, and even the possibility of criminal sanctions. Given the context of institutional co-optation and the absence of independent appeal mechanisms, this law is effectively a tool of selective persecution against civil society organizations and critical voices demanding accountability.
The identities of the three prisoners of conscience recognized by Amnesty International today clearly reflect the actors that the Bukele government is targeting: community organizers, environmental and territorial defenders, and anyone who denounces human rights violations ordemands transparency.
Therefore, these designations also serve as a recognition of all those who, for peacefully exercising their rights in El Salvador, face unjust criminalization, or live under constant surveillance, harassment and the persistent threat of prosecution. Hence, Amnesty International also wishes to express solidarity with other victims of criminalization, whose cases exemplifythis repressive pattern.
Amnesty International urges the Salvadoran authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the individuals named today as prisoners of conscience, and to cease the misuse of the penal system to persecute those peacefully exercising their rights. The organization reaffirms that that no one deprived of their liberty should, under any circumstances, be subjected to special regimes that entail incommunicado detention, or the loss of their rights to family visits or contact with their legal defense. These minimum guarantees do not constitute special treatment, but basic state obligations under international human rights law. Finally, Amnesty International calls for the repeal of repressive laws such as the Foreign Agents Act, the state of exception’s measures that have resulted in human rights violations and the restoration of the principles of due process and judicial independence.
Header image: José Ángel Pérez, Ruth Eleonora López and Alejandro Henríquez © Victoria Paz/MalaYerba/Cristosal
