In El Salvador, there are few clearer signs of Nayib Bukele’s vice-grip on the Judiciary than the fact that the legal team of Ruth López, a renowned human rights and corruption investigator, plans to pressure the president personally to secure her freedom. Since police coaxed her out of her home on false pretenses in May 2025, López has spent over 16 months in prison awaiting a secret trial.
Even more striking is the family’s decision to hire Jared Genser, an international attorney who has helped free dozens of political prisoners around the world. Genser is quick to point out his former work with now-U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on behalf of Leopoldo López — the once-jailed Venezuelan opposition leader whose assistant, Sara Hanna, is now a top political operative in El Salvador who traveled with Bukele to the Trump White House last year.
In this interview, Genser called Ruth López’s detention “a window into El Salvador today” under the state of exception, which has suspended procedural guarantees for tens of thousands of Salvadorans since 2022. He reported that concerns about her health remain despite an apparently negative test for cancer. “It is very telling that the government has not even explained publicly what the evidence is,” he said. “A public trial would expose how they have no evidence against her.”
Reports ranging from Amnesty International to the Biden State Department to El Faro concluded that there have been political prisoners in El Salvador since at least since Bukele’s first term. As for Ruth López’s release, “a lot will depend on the El Salvador government, but they’ve been intransigent up to this point,” said Genser. “Private diplomacy works, but if not, we have other options.”
Your objective is to get Ruth López out of prison. Who do you expect to work with? Is this an El Salvador government-facing negotiation, or with the international community?
Ruth is not in prison because the government has proven she’s committed a crime. She’s in prison because she had the courage to expose corruption and defend human rights, and the criminal justice system has been turned against her. She’s a hero because she put her life at risk to help others. I’m working with her family as well as with NGOs that have been advocating on her behalf. She already has a strong team in place, including a local lawyer.
Governments who aren’t afraid of their own people can win an argument through democratic processes. El Salvador has been in a state of exception since 2022. Her case is really a window into El Salvador today. I hope we’ll have an opportunity to engage with the El Salvador government, the U.N., and other governments. My goal is to collaborate with the existing team and elevate the global campaign to get her out.
Are you also representing the jailed constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya?
I’m only representing Ruth. I don’t have a relationship with Enrique Anaya’s family. But helping her is going to help everybody in El Salvador. Ruth’s case is emblematic, but the instructions we have as counsel are to talk about Enrique and the other political prisoners, too.
You’ve worked dozens of cases. What do you expect to happen in this one?
A lot will depend on the El Salvador government, but they’ve been intransigent up to this point. We filed a petition on her behalf with the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. That will be sent to the government, they’ll have the opportunity to respond, and then we can reply. I don’t think the outcome will change even if the government participates, because the due process and human rights abuses have been well documented. The Working Group will ultimately adopt a legal judgment. If they find she’s being confined in violation of international law, we expect the judgment to call for her immediate and unconditional release.
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This will be an all-hands-on-deck operation. There’s no U.N. peacekeeping operation that’s going to come in and force Bukele to release her. We’re going to do absolutely everything we can to bring pressure upon his regime. Bukele will have to make a decision. It’s really telling to me that Ruth was classified by the intelligence service in El Salvador as an opposition figure. This is the crux of why she was detained in the first place: to stop her from speaking out as fearlessly and publicly as she did for victims of human rights abuses, and against egregious corruption schemes by those in and close to the government.
Where is she being held currently?
The Western Penitentiary Center in Santa Ana.
Her family has said they fear for her life. How is her health?
One piece of good news is that it appears that her test for breast cancer came back negative. But we remain very concerned because her health has deteriorated throughout her detention. She has elevated levels of triglycerides, which is very dangerous and puts her at risk of fatal health problems like heart attack, stroke, and pancreatitis. Our biggest concern is that officials routinely withhold her medical records from Ruth and her family, only selectively making them public to advance their political interests. They keep insisting publicly she’s perfectly fine. That suggests to me they’re hiding something. Give the medical records to her family so that her doctor and her husband can review them. If she’s healthy, I’ll come out publicly and say so.
Has she lost significant weight?
She has lost some weight. I don’t know that I would describe it as significant. Within the prison system, she’s being treated fine relative to others in similar circumstances. The government has said that she’s being treated better than everybody else. If so, open up the prison and let independent NGOs and journalists make a judgment for themselves. No need to quibble.
Her family recently visited her. What is her situation regarding visitation?
El Salvador is clearly and flagrantly violating their obligations under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the Nelson Mandela Rules. Under the Mandela Rules, you have a right to weekly visits. Visitation for family and council has been dramatically less than required under international law. Typically, when a person is held as a political prisoner, the denial of visits is used to control the flow of information to people in a position to say something publicly.
You mentioned the U.N. Working Group. What about the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights? They already granted her precautionary measures.
Yes. The Inter-American Commission does important work. But the problem is that the process doesn’t serve people who are alleging arbitrary detention, because getting a binding judgment or opinion from the Commission, and then from the Court, can take seven or eight years — two to three years to get through the Commission alone. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention can take a year or even less. If the U.N. says a person’s being held illegally and calls for their release, that’s more than sufficient for our political and public relations advocacy.
What more can you say about your petition?
First, the charges against Ruth are politically motivated. She’s being discriminated against because of her status as a member of a protected class: human rights defenders. Second, a wide array of due process and fair trial rights are being flagrantly violated. Ruth was arrested on May 18, 2025. She’s been in pre-trial detention and no trial date has been set. This violates her right to a prompt appearance before judicial authority.
You also have a right to pre-trial release, unless there’s a reason to believe that you’re likely to flee the jurisdiction. She clearly would not flee. She would want to face down the charges, which are obviously fabricated. Originally, she was under investigation for embezzlement, but there was no evidence. They dropped those charges and now she’s been charged with illegal enrichment. Again, without evidence. If there was, you’d hold a trial and convict her quickly.
It is very telling that the government has not even explained publicly what the evidence is, let alone allowed the international community and media to have access to it. They have of course put this case under secrecy. Under international law, you have a right to a public trial. This alone is enough to conclude a person is being held in violation of international law. A public trial would expose how they have no evidence against her.
You worked on other cases in Latin America. How does López’s case compare to those experiences?
I’ve worked cases in Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela. I see it as a positive sign that Bukele wants to be engaged in the world and has a working relationship with the Trump administration. I spent a long time advocating on behalf of two imprisoned presidential candidates in Nicaragua: Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro. Neither Daniel Ortega nor Rosario Murillo cared all that much about their engagement with Washington and the international community, which made it a harder set of cases.
If Bukele wants to prove that he’s beloved by his own people, release all of the political prisoners, allow for free and fair elections, allow journalists who fled into exile to return, and allow civil society to work without fear of arrest or torture. If he wants to show he’s a democrat, he should lift the state of exception. You don’t harass and intimidate if you’re not worried about what your people think of you. I don’t think he sees Ruth as too much of a risk to his reputation. The regime puts out statements responding to her husband and her legal team. It’s our job to make sure that, everywhere he goes, people know Ruth’s name. He has to decide if this is the kind of question he wants to be getting from the media, governments, and the United Nations.
You mentioned the Trump administration. Do you think that Secretary of State Marco Rubio knows about Ruth López?
I wouldn’t be surprised if he does. He was a brilliant senator on human rights issues. I worked with him probably the closest of any senator. When representing Leopoldo López in Venezuela with his wife Lilian Tintori, we met with Senator Rubio easily seven or eight times, just him in his office, on that one case. And many other times before. He cares about freedom, democracy, and human rights in the Americas. President Trump has his own relationship with Bukele; he clearly likes him. My hope and belief is that the United States will ultimately be in a position to say to Bukele: “Help us help you. Let out Ruth and the other political prisoners.”
If Trump told Bukele, you have to let her out, he would let her out. He’d really have no choice. I’m not suggesting it’ll be easy, but we have allies in the State Department and White House who would think similarly. The U.S. hasn’t come out and said there are no political prisoners in El Salvador. One has to be very creative in the kind of David versus Goliath battle we’re in. I’m not going to speak about it publicly, but there are lots of ways to persuade the administration to take a different course on El Salvador. These things don’t get done quickly or easily.
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I’m working this case pro bono because I believe in Ruth and the people of El Salvador. There’s nothing I’m getting out of this other than my personal satisfaction of doing the right thing and standing up to a dictator who is afraid of his own people. That is much more powerful than lobbyists in Washington who are just doing it for the money. This is why we’ll ultimately prevail.
You’ve used the words “regime” and “dictator” to describe the government and Bukele. Do you see yourself as a negotiator who must convince the government to hear you out?
Dictators release political prisoners not because they want to, but because they have to, as the least-bad choice. My approach is to call the facts as I see them. My job isn’t to believe that through being sweet and kind he’s going to simply fold his cards and go home. Bukele only understands one emotion: fear. At the end of the day, our job as human rights lawyers is to instill fear in him: of justice and accountability, of his assets being taken, of affecting his reputation. He is not going to release Ruth because he wants to, but because it’s becoming an increasing headache and just isn’t worth it.
I’m prepared to have a private dialogue with the government and see what can be worked out. Private diplomacy works, but if not, we have other options. On average my clients serve about 11.5 years less time in prison than what they were sentenced to. None of these cases where my clients got out didn’t sound impossible at the beginning. Nelson Mandela said it always seems impossible until it’s done. This is why I became a human rights lawyer. I’m going to keep going until she’s out, no matter how long that takes.