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City Bar Statement Expressing Concern Regarding the Detention of Lawyer and Human Rights Defender Ruth López Alfaro in El Salvador
The Vance Center signed on to a statement by the New York City Bar Association expressing serious concern about the detention of human rights attorney Ruth Eleonora López Alfaro and calling on the Salvadoran government to ensure her safety and respect due process.
In a new statement, the New York City Bar Association expressed deep concern about the detention of Ruth Eleonora López Alfaro, a widely respected human rights defender and academic, and a growing pattern of reprisals against legal professionals and human rights defenders in El Salvador.
López Alfaro is a Salvadoran attorney who heads the Anti-Corruption and Justice team at Cristosal, an NGO dedicated to promoting democracy and human rights throughout Central America.
On May 18, 2025, government actors detained López Alfaro at her private residence. Through a public statement published on X (formerly Twitter), the Salvadoran Attorney General’s Office announced that it had carried out an administrative detention order against López Alfaro on embezzlement charges. The statement alleged that López Alfaro had participated in misappropriation of public funds in previous her role as a trusted advisor to former government official Eugenio Chicas.
The government failed to disclose her location to her family members and lawyers for more than 40 hours following her detention. On Tuesday, May 20, López Alfaro’s mother, Eleonora Alfaro, confirmed she was able to visit her daughter at the Traffic Division of the National Civil Police, where she is being held.
The statement frames López Alfaro’s detention within the broader context of a crackdown on civic space, human rights, and free expression in El Salvador.
“Far from being an isolated incident, this action is part of a disturbing pattern of systematic criminalization of critical voices and human rights defenders in El Salvador under the government of Nayib Bukele,” the statement says. “Some media outlets have speculated that López Alfaro’s detention is directly linked to her work as a government critic and her active defense of democratic principles and the rule of law.”
López Alfaro’s detention also violates international human rights standards, the statement notes.
“The detention of a human rights lawyer due to her legal work constitutes a violation of international standards concerning the free and independent exercise of the legal profession, as enshrined in the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, as well as of the rights to personal liberty, freedom of expression, and due process under the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,” it says.
The City Bar calls on the Salvadoran government to “immediately cease the criminalization of independent legal professionals, release López Alfaro if the arbitrariness of her detention is confirmed and adopt effective guarantees for the safe and free exercise of legal defense in the country.”
The statement also calls on the international community, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the governments of neighboring countries to monitor the case and use appropriate channels to press for the immediate release of López Alfaro and the cessation of reprisals against civil society actors in El Salvador.
The City Bar’s Inter-American Affairs Committee and Task Force on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges also signed on to the statement. The statement is available in Spanish.
Read the full statement here:
The Detention of Lawyer and Human Rights Defender Ruth López Alfaro In El Salvador