El Salvador arrests human rights lawyer critical of President Bukele
Posted by Naurgul@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Authorities in El Salvador have arrested a prominent attorney critical of President Nayib Bukele, in a move criticized by rights groups who say it reflects an increasing trend of “authoritarianism” in the country.
Ruth Eleonora López, the head of the Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit of the rights organization Cristosal, is accused of collaborating in the “theft of funds from state coffers,” the Attorney General’s Office of El Salvador said.
Speaking at a press conference alongside the leaders of Cristosal on Monday, López’s mother and husband said the arrest was part of a recurring pattern in which activists are detained, denied contact with their families, and their whereabouts concealed.
They alleged that authorities appeared at her home “under false pretenses,” claiming there had been a traffic accident to lure her outside. She was then detained and not allowed to see a warrant, they said. They added they still do not know the formal charges beyond what the Attorney General’s Office posted on X.
The organization Cristosal labeled the move as a “short-term forced disappearance,” as it does not know where López, a lawyer and university professor, is being held. It has asked authorities to allow López’s lawyer to meet with her.
NetworkLlama@reddit
Last year, anyone in this sub who criticized Bukele for being undemocratic and anticonstitutional was downvoted and lambasted as someone who just doesn't understand what El Salvador has gone through. Anyone pointing to the Salvadoran Constitution to show how Bukele was not eligible to run again, or to fire a bunch of Supreme Court judges and replace them with his own picks, or any of a number of other things that he's done to consolidate power, was told things like the Salvadoran Constitution is "just a piece of paper" and "this is what the Salvadoran people want."
We've watched him get worse, or at least less willing to hide his crimes, since Trump came into office. I wonder what the support level is for him now.
Naurgul@reddit (OP)
I think the people who support him haven't changed. It's just that American liberals have become more aware of him because of his Trump connection so that's the factor that changed the balance on reddit.
jadedflames@reddit
I think it might be that he has now had more than 1% of the population of the country arrested without constitutional rights. That’s not really a statistic you can argue with.
Silver-Literature-29@reddit
The main issue you have a super majority of el Salvadorians who support him and his policies. Hard to convince people that what he is doing is wrong when it wasn't safe to walk the street before he was elected.
I had family visit for the first time in decades as the crime/murder all but disappeared. The ugly truth is people will trade rights for security/prosperity.
NetworkLlama@reddit
I get that something has to change. I'm not even all that upset about detaining anyone with gang tattoos. It's all the other stuff that he's done beyond that, and the idea that he's the only one that can fix things and there's no reason to establish a successor. If that's true, then his country is a heartbeat away from returning to the previous chaos.
jadedflames@reddit
But the question is, who is deciding what a “gang tattoo” is, anymore?
Trump made world headlines by pretending that a pot leaf was an MS-13 symbol. But that kind of thing happens every day in El Salvador. People are arrested - often for crimes, but sometimes for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sometimes (as here) for speaking out one too many times against the government.
When you have a government that has suspended all constitutional protections for arrests and is building mega-prisons as quickly as possible, it isn’t really about gang members anymore.
NetworkLlama@reddit
That's a good point. When someone has the typical MS13 tattoos all over their face, it's a lot easier to justify. But it can easily expand to justify any tattoo as a gang symbol ("They're changing to avoid arrests"). It can quickly move into a gray area if one does not have honest intentions.
18thcenturymadonna@reddit
There is nothing shocking about humans prioritizing their basic needs over their liberties and rights. After all, freedom is only valuable to those who can afford to taste it. Being able to do so is a choice that post civil war Salvadorians have never been granted.
The alternative has been too heavy of a burden to risk. It makes sense that Salvadorians believe or accept Bukele as their only option, given that he has been the sole president to almost completely eradicate gang violence. Wouldn’t anyone fear the return of mass casualties over free speech?
I mean, what good are personal freedoms when you aren’t going to live long enough to express them? I reckon that most people would gladly trade away their voice if it helped them avoid watching their loved ones get raped, tortured, dismembered, and murdered.
Personally, if I had to live in extreme and well justified fear, I definitely wouldn’t care about anything but my safety. The current regime may provide an unstable sense of security but not a false one.
Though you are correct to question the long term success of the status quo; however, seeing the current state of the world makes it abundantly clear that Salvadorians aren’t alone when it comes to lacking foresight lol