El Salvador arrests rights lawyer helping migrants deported by Trump

Police in El Salvador have arrested a prominent human rights lawyer with an organization helping families of imprisoned Venezuelan migrants who were deported by the United States, authorities said Monday.

The Cristosal rights group called for the immediate release of activist and attorney Ruth Eleonora Lopez, a critic of President Nayib Bukele.

The 47-year-old, who was detained late Sunday, is accused of embezzling state funds when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago, the public prosecutor's office said.

"Neither her family nor her legal team has managed to find out her whereabouts," Cristosal said in a statement.

It called the authorities' refusal to disclose Lopez's location or grant her lawyers access "a blatant violation of due process."

Her arrest "raises serious concerns about the increasing risks faced by human rights defenders in El Salvador," it added.

Lopez runs Cristosal's corruption and justice division and is a critic of Bukele's anti-crime policy, the highlight of which is the sweeping arrests of thousands of alleged gang members.

Bukele has jauntily called himself "the world's coolest dictator" and is a darling of US President Donald Trump.

Cristosal helps families of Salvadorans caught up in Bukele's waves of arrests and the Venezuelans who were deported in March by the Trump administration, which paid El Salvador to imprison them.

Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to fly the Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador without any court hearings, alleging they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, a charge that their families and lawyers deny.

Last week, a law firm hired by Caracas to assist the Venezuelans alleged that the migrants were victims of physical and emotional "torture."

Cristosal said last month that police officers had entered its headquarters during a press conference to film and photograph the premises, as well as members of the media and vehicles belonging to staff.

It said the incident was part of "the current context of authoritarianism and the closure of democratic spaces in El Salvador."

Last week, nine international organizations including Amnesty International accused the Bukele administration of adopting "an authoritarian pattern in the face of social discontent."

"The Salvadoran government has resorted to excessive use of force, undue militarization, the criminalization of protest, and threats to further restrict civic space," a joint statement said.

Lopez was included in a list of 100 inspiring and influential women around the world last year by the BBC, which praised her for being "passionate about law and justice."