Podcast: Political Prisoner Ruth López Hits One Year in Bukele’s Dungeons

This is the transcript of episode 73 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.

DELEÓN: We firmly believe in Ruth’s innocence and that her unfair imprisonment has been the catalyst for us in exile to come together and organize, to join the fight for her liberation.

GRESSIER, HOST: That’s Salvadoran attorney Bertha María Deleón during the inauguration in Mexico City of the Committee of Salvadoran Exiles, marking one year since the arrest of Cristosal attorney and human rights defender Ruth López.

Ruth López underwent secret surgery

This week marked one year since the Salvadoran regime arrested renowned attorney Ruth López, leader of anti-corruption and justice initiatives at Cristosal, a prominent human rights organization in Central America.

Her family and lawyers are urgently demanding information about her health, access to medical records, and an in-person visit to verify that she is receiving adequate medical care.

Last week, López's family found out that she was admitted to the hospital and had surgery without their knowledge.

According to Cristosal, López is one of 86 political prisoners in El Salvador and among the 245 people who have been persecuted politically as of May 2026.

Access to López’s judicial case file remains restricted, just as it is for 85,000 case files opened during the country’s regime of exception, according to an estimate by El Faro.

In June 2025, Amnesty International declared Ruth López a prisoner of conscience, and later in September, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ordered measures to protect her right to life.

During the year she has been in custody, Ruth has received five international awards for her advocacy for human rights.

In May 2025, the police took Ruth López from her home under false pretenses. They arrested her on charges of alleged embezzlement while she served as chief advisor to the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal from 2009 to 2014. They also accused her of helping divert funds from government bank accounts.

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In El Salvador, Bukele controls the judiciary and prosecutor’s office. Seventeen days after her arrest, she was ordered to pretrial detention. The charges were later changed to illicit enrichment.

Which is striking, because during the first five years of Bukele’s administration, Ruth López exposed more than 50 cases of corruption and the misuse of public funds.

Her arrest marked a turning point for human rights in El Salvador. A month after her arrest, at least 50 journalists and activists fled into exile.

As we reported in a profile of Ruth last December, the Salvadoran dictatorship sent a warning to the entire country: keep quiet or risk going to jail.

Hondurasgate skips journalistic method

GRESSIER: On April 29, an anonymous website called Hondurasgate published several audio clips attributed to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.

These recordings also implicated current President Nasry Asfura, and global right-wing figures like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, in an alleged plot to return Hernández to power.

Diario Red and Canal Red, outlets led by former Spanish politician Pablo Iglesias, also broadcasted the audios.

The recordings claimed Israel paid to free Hernández from prison in January, after he was sentenced to 45 years for drug trafficking charges in 2024. They also claimed Hernández, Trump, and Argentinian leader Javier Milei wanted to set up disinformation agencies in Mexico and Colombia.

Sitting presidents Claudia Sheinbaum and Gustavo Petro reacted to the audio and denounced the alleged sabotage.

But the publication lacked basic journalistic standards. Key claims had no clear sources, and it was unclear how the outlet verified the voices. It did not include responses from the people allegedly speaking. Hernández and others quickly denied it was their voices.

On May 3, Hondurasgate and Iglesias's outlets published what they called an expert report. They claimed the audio was authentic, citing software from a Czech company called Phonexia. But the report only said the voices were human. It could not identify the speakers or the recording dates.

Days later, Phonexia told the Honduran outlet Contracorriente that the publications did not use their software. And they announced legal action against Hondurasgate.

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Contracorriente conducted its own investigation. They looked into the Hondurasgate YouTube channel. It was created in 2022 under the name Elon Musk Noticias and renamed Noti Bloom. Before the 2025 elections, it spread unverified conversations about an alleged plot against the electoral process, fitting into the ruling party Libre’s fraud narrative.

Contracorriente sought comments from Pablo Iglesias. He didn’t respond, but told other outlets that “as far as he was concerned the audit proved the voices were authentic.”

But Iglesias also acknowledged his team did not seek comment from Hernández —which goes back to those basic journalistic standards— because “it is not their journalistic practice” to seek comments of people serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking like Hernandez.

This is Jennifer Ávila, the director of Contracorriente.

ÁVILA: People seem to believe that doing journalism simply consists of receiving a leak and running it through an A.I. tool. Major outlets failed to verify the source of the information, and republished it regardless.

New attorney general in Guatemala

GRESSIER: Now, to Guatemala. On Sunday, May 17, a new attorney general took office after eight years under the leadership of Consuelo Porras. She was sanctioned in more than 40 countries and named “Corrupt Person of the Year” in 2023 by OCCRP.

President Arévalo has now appointed Gabriel García Luna, a career judge and judicial discipline official. The understated choice was a very Arévalo move.

But García Luna made his first big decision early. In his first press conference, he declared that he would dissolve the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), the office led by Rafael Curruchiche, who is close to Porras and has also been internationally sanctioned.

Curruchiche played a key role in the criminalization of journalists such as Jose Rubén Zamora.

The new AG has also proposed a special commission to review all cases of criminalization handled by Curruchiche’s office.

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Expectations rest not only on García Luna but also on President Arévalo, who throughout his years in office has claimed Porras was an obstacle to governance.

But for constitutional lawyer Edgar Ortiz, it might not be a great change: “I believe his governing style will change because there will be less repression, but I don’t think the substantial changes he will make will improve things significantly,” he told El Faro English.

Porras clung to her final days in power. She tried to stay in the game by running for the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, which in 2022 cleared the way at the last minute for her to be appointed to a second term. But she failed.

So she pivoted. Despite Arévalo’s statement that she had no chance of being chosen, she decided to run for a third term as attorney general. She oddly achieved the highest score on the initial list of candidates, but in the end, she didn’t make it.

Amid this chaos, her Salvadoran counterpart, Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado, visited her to recognize her for her work — the very work that led to the international condemnations.

In the end, Consuelo Porras left the same way she led: mired in controversy, shielded by allies, and rejected by much of the international community. Her departure may signal the end of an era, but in Guatemala, the tables turn in a blink of an eye.

This episode was written by Leyrian Colón Santiago, Yuliana Ramazzini, and Gabriel Labrador, with editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube.