20 August, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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 \u2013 Unit for the Defence of Human and Community Rights)<\/strong> and have actively documented violations and provided legal assistance to people detained under the emergency regime in force in El Salvador since March 2022.<\/p>\n On 25 February 2025, the authorities carried out a violent and irregular raid on the home of Ivania Cruz<\/strong>, who was in Spain to participate in international human rights actions.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n That same day, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador issued arrest warrants<\/strong> for lawyers Ivania Cruz<\/b> and Rudy Joya, <\/b>both of whom were outside the country at the time.<\/p>\n These criminal proceedings are part of the so-called \u2018La Floresta\u2019 case<\/i>, which has been denounced by several national and international organisations as a judicial setup against UNIDEHC spokespersons. As part of this case, UNIDEHC member Fidel Zavala<\/b> and 24 community leaders whom they represented remain unjustly detained.<\/p>\n Rudy Joya <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n In July 2025, INTERPOL issued red notices for Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya.<\/p>\n These events are taking place in a context of\u00a0growing hostility by the State towards organisations and legal professionals defending human rights<\/strong>\u00a0in El Salvador. The recent approval of the\u00a0Foreign Agents Law<\/strong>, promoted by President Nayib Bukele, imposes severe restrictions on organisations that receive funds from abroad. Several national and international voices \u2014 including the\u00a0Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) <\/strong>[1]<\/strong><\/a> and\u00a0Amnesty International<\/strong>[2]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 have warned that this law could be used as a tool to silence civil society.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0Ruth L\u00f3pez<\/strong>[3]<\/strong><\/a>, Alejandro Henr\u00edquez<\/strong>[4]<\/strong><\/a> and Enrique Anaya<\/strong>[5]<\/strong><\/a>, and represents a new milestone in the Salvadoran State\u2019s offensive against those who defend fundamental rights, particularly in contexts of high vulnerability such as the state of emergency.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Observatory reiterates its strong condemnation\u00a0<\/strong>of the persistent harassment of Salvadoran legal professionals working on the defence of human rights.<\/p>\n The Observatory calls on the Salvadoran authorities<\/strong> to immediately revoke the arrest warrants against Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya and to cease all criminal proceedings against them.<\/p>\n The Observatory urges the Salvadoran authorities\u00a0<\/strong>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\u00a0United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a>https:\/\/www.oas.org\/pt\/CIDH\/jsForm\/?File=\/es\/cidh\/prensa\/comunicados\/2025\/115.asp&utm_content=country-slv&utm_term=class-mon<\/a><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/es\/documents\/amr29\/9100\/2025\/es\/<\/a><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/es\/case\/ruth-lopez\/<\/a><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/es\/case\/alejandro-henriquez\/<\/a><\/p>\n [5]<\/a> https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/case\/enrique-anaya\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"listing_category":[50],"event_category":[],"service_category":[],"rental_category":[],"classifieds_category":[],"listing_feature":[],"region":[1872,83],"class_list":["post-23255","listing","type-listing","status-publish","hentry","listing_category-threatened","region-el-salvador-en","region-america-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/23255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/listing"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23255"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/23255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23901,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/23255\/revisions\/23901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_category?post=23255"},{"taxonomy":"event_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category?post=23255"},{"taxonomy":"service_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service_category?post=23255"},{"taxonomy":"rental_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rental_category?post=23255"},{"taxonomy":"classifieds_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classifieds_category?post=23255"},{"taxonomy":"listing_feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_feature?post=23255"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=23255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}