El Salvador arrests former state official and current lawyer Ruth Eleonora Lopez over alleged embezzlement of funds when she held a government position

Ruth Eleonora Lopez's organisation, Cristosal, condemned the arrest on Monday, which it described as a "short-term enforced disappearance," and demanded that the government provide information on her whereabouts.

Cristosal has been one of the most outspoken critics of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies, especially the ongoing three-year state of emergency while the government fights the country's gangs.

Lopez is the head of Cristosal's Anti-Corruption Unit.

Embezzlement

The alleged wrongdoing dates to her time as an adviser to Eugenio Chicas, the former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal during the administration of president Salvador Sanchez Ceren (2014-2021).

Chicas moved from the court to the Cabinet of Sanchez Ceren and also served as a congressman.

Last November, he and some of his relatives were convicted in a civil case for illegal enrichment between 2009 and 2021.

Chicas, who was detained in February, is now being prosecuted on criminal charges of illegal enrichment.

The Attorney General's Office said that Lopez had been involved in Chicas' embezzlement.

"During these periods, Ruth Lopez collaborated in the theft of funds from state coffers. According to the investigations and the information gathered in the raids carried out in the case of Eugenio Chicas, we have identified her active participation in the acts with which she is charged," the prosecutor's office said in a statement on X.