El Salvador: Criminalisation and harassment of lawyers Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya
20 August, 2025
Lawyers Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya are facing alarming criminalisation by the Salvadoran State. Both are members of the Unidad de Defensa de Derechos Humanos y Comunitarios (UNIDEHC – Unit for the Defence of Human and Community Rights) and have actively documented violations and provided legal assistance to people detained under the emergency regime in force in El Salvador since March 2022.
On 25 July 2025, the Attorney General’s Office issued arrest warrants for Cruz and Joya. National and international organisations denounced the repressive nature of these criminal proceedings against their human rights work. On 25 February 2025, the authorities carried out a violent and irregular raid on the home of Ivania Cruz, who was in Spain to participate in international human rights actions.
During the raid, prosecutors and police officers forcefully entered the front door without presenting a warrant before a lawyer arrived. Only Cruz’s mother, an elderly woman with health issues, was in the house. The officers stole a safe containing private documents belonging to the lawyer’s brother.
Rudy Joya has also been under surveillance and has received threats connected to the ongoing legal proceedings, creating a climate of intimidation and risk to his personal integrity and freedom.
These events are taking place in a context of growing hostility by the State towards organisations and legal professionals defending human rights in El Salvador. The recent approval of the Foreign Agents Law, promoted by President Nayib Bukele, imposes severe restrictions on organisations that receive funds from abroad. Several national and international voices — including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) [1] and Amnesty International[2] — have warned that this law could be used as a tool to silence civil society.
The criminalisation of lawyers Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya follows other cases previously reported by the International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD), such as the detention of Ruth López[3], Alejandro Henríquez[4] and Enrique Anaya[5], and represents a new milestone in the Salvadoran State’s offensive against those who defend fundamental rights, particularly in contexts of high vulnerability such as the state of emergency.
The Observatory reiterates its strong condemnation of the persistent harassment of Salvadoran legal professionals working on the defence of human rights.
The Observatory calls on the Salvadoran authorities to immediately revoke the arrest warrants against Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya and to cease all criminal proceedings against them.
The Observatory urges the Salvadoran authorities to put an end to all forms of harassment, intimidation or violence against lawyers and human rights defenders in the exercise of their duties, in accordance with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.
[1]https://www.oas.org/pt/CIDH/jsForm/?File=/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2025/115.asp&utm_content=country-slv&utm_term=class-mon
[2] https://www.amnesty.org/es/documents/amr29/9100/2025/es/
[3] https://protect-lawyers.org/es/case/ruth-lopez/
[4] https://protect-lawyers.org/es/case/alejandro-henriquez/
