source: El Salvador Now
According to reports received by the Rapporteur, Mr. Fidel Zavala is being held in the holding cells of the Isidro Menéndez Judicial Center in San Salvador. However, this information was never officially communicated to his family. Rather, it was only when his mother went to bring him food that she was informed. According to reports, Mr. Zavala has limited access to water and personal hygiene products. Regarding Ms. Ivania Cruz and Mr. Rudy Joya, reports indicate that INTERPOL has acceded to a request from the Fifth Tribunal Against Organized Crime in San Salvador to issue Red Notices concerning them.
BACKGROUND
Subject: The alleged arbitrary detention and prosecution of the spokesperson for the Unidad por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos y Comunitarios de El Salvador (Unit for the Defense of Human and Community Rights, UNIDEHC), Mr. Fidel Zavala; the raid on the home of the lawyer and director of the organization, Ms. Ivania Cruz; her prosecution along with another lawyer from the organization, Mr. Rudy Joya; and the raid on the main headquarters of UNIDEHC in San Salvador.
The Unidad por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos y Comunitarios de El Salvador (UNIDEHC) is a non-governmental organization dedicated to human rights defense, including within the framework of the state of exception and evictions affecting the most vulnerable communities, among other issues.
Mr. Fidel Zavala is a human rights defender and spokesperson for UNIDEHC. He was previously a businessman and, in February 2022, was accused of fraud and detained for 13 months. After being acquitted of the charges in March 2023, he began publicly denouncing the abuses he allegedly witnessed in the two penal centers where he was held, as well as arbitrary detentions under the state of exception, decreed in March 2022.
Ms. Ivania Cruz is a human rights defender, lawyer, and director of UNIDEHC.
Mr. Rudy Joya is a human rights defender and a lawyer with UNIDEHC.
Allegations of human rights violations under the state of exception, approved on March 27, 2022, and extended by several legislative decrees since then, were referred to the Government of El Salvador through three prior communications, sent on June 1, 2022 (AL SLV 2/2022), October 12, 2022 (AL SLV 4/2022), and May 17, 2023 (AL SLV 2/2023). We acknowledge the Government’s responses to all three communications, received on July 29, 2022, December 12, 2023, and December 15, 2023. However, we remain concerned, as the state of exception is still in effect.
ALLEGATIONS
Background
La Floresta is a community formed over 15 years ago by individuals demobilized and displaced by the civil war of the 1990s, located in the district of San Juan Opico, department of La Libertad. Since then, more than 200 families have reportedly established their homes there, without anyone having claimed title to the land.
In May 2024, a group of unknown individuals, acting on the orders of a person who presented herself as the owner of the land, reportedly brought heavy machinery to the site and carried out an arbitrary and violent eviction, damaging several homes and demolishing some of them. The person who claimed to be the owner reportedly presented no documents to prove her rights or any judicial order. In response to this attempt to evict more than 200 families, the community filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General (FGR), and the leaders of La Floresta requested support from UNIDEHC.
On February 9, 2025, two leaders from La Floresta were reportedly detained while conducting land survey procedures.
Consequently, on February 13, 2025, the UNIDEHC team reportedly accompanied a group of La Floresta residents to file a criminal complaint with the FGR against agents of the police (PNC) for their detention.
On the morning of February 25, 2025, Mr. Fidel Zavala reportedly accompanied some leaders from La Floresta to file a complaint with the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman regarding the detention of the two community leaders.
That same day, at 9:00 p.m., more than 20 community leaders from La Floresta—including two pregnant women—were reportedly detained in a joint operation by the Office of the Attorney General and the police, accused of alleged crimes including specially aggravated threats, irregular commercialization of parcels or subdivisions, illegal restriction of freedom of movement, unauthorized practice of a profession, and illicit associations, in connection with their efforts to halt the eviction of the 200 families from La Floresta.
On February 26, 2025, a photo of the group of community leaders was reportedly published on the official social media accounts of the Office of the Attorney General, describing them as a “network of fraudsters.” It was alleged that the structure was composed of lawyers and non-profit organizations nonexistent in the relevant public registry.
Regarding Mr. Fidel Zavala
On February 9, 2022, Mr. Fidel Zavala was detained and accused of the crime of aggravated fraud. He was reportedly held for 13 months, during the first year of the state of exception, in two penal centers—the Centro Preventivo y de Cumplimiento de Penas de la Esperanza (located in San Luis Mariona, Mejicanos, San Salvador Centro, known as “Mariona”) and the Centro Industrial de Cumplimiento y Rehabilitación de Santa Ana (known as the Western Penitentiary or “Cutumay Camones” Penitentiary). During that time, he reportedly witnessed serious human rights violations, including torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and violations of the right to health by prison guards.
On March 8, 2023, Mr. Zavala was reportedly acquitted by the Third Sentencing Tribunal of San Salvador, which determined that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the accusations against him. Following his acquittal and release, he publicly denounced to national and international media the alleged abuses he witnessed during his detention, including torture, deaths in state custody, and severe overcrowding in cells. He also claimed to have seen numerous bodies removed in “black bags” from the penal centers.
On July 17, 2024, UNIDEHC, through Mr. Zavala, reportedly submitted information to the Office of the Attorney General to initiate criminal proceedings against the Vice Minister of Public Security and Director General of Prisons, as well as the directors of the “Mariona” and “Cutumay Camones” prisons, accusing them of torture, corruption, arbitrary acts, and dereliction of duty. The death of one of his friends in the “Cutumay Camones” prison reportedly motivated Mr. Zavala to pursue this action, as on the same date of the death, the Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression had declared in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that there is no torture in El Salvador. In August 2024, Mr. Zavala was reportedly appointed as UNIDEHC’s spokesperson on cases of arbitrary detentions.
On February 25, 2_0_25, at 4:00 p.m., the UNIDEHC facilities in San Salvador were reportedly raided by the police, accompanied by members of the Office of the Attorney General. During the raid, Mr. Zavala was allegedly arbitrarily detained and accused of three crimes: illicit associations, illegal commercialization of parcels or subdivisions, and unauthorized practice of a profession. During the raid on the office, which reportedly lasted 24 hours, the police and prosecutors stated that they had a search warrant for the UNIDEHC offices, issued by a Peace Court in Santa Tecla, related to the land legalization process for La Floresta. Despite this, they reportedly took documents related to other cases, such as accusations against officials in the context of the state of exception, and documents from other offices and organizations located in the same building as UNIDEHC. Mr. Zavala was reportedly taken to a police station in Lourdes Colón, La Libertad, where he had no access to his family or his lawyer.
On March 13, 2025, the initial hearing in the case against Mr. Zavala and the 24 community leaders from La Floresta was reportedly held before the Fifth Tribunal Against Organized Crime, Judge Three of San Salvador. This hearing was reportedly the first time Mr. Zavala was able to have contact with his lawyer. The judge reportedly ordered provisional detention for Mr. Zavala and the community leaders for six months, apparently without considering an alternative measure to detention.
On March 14, 2025, a hearing was reportedly held in the Eighth Peace Court for another case opened by the Office of the Attorney General against Mr. Zavala, in which he was again accused of “aggravated fraud.” At this hearing, provisional detention was decreed, and the case was transferred to the Fifth Instruction Court of San Salvador without announcing the date of the next hearing. Mr. Zavala was reportedly forced to accept a public defender, despite having his own lawyers.
On March 17, 2025, the Third Sentencing Tribunal of San Salvador reportedly ordered the scheduling of a hearing for the case in which Mr. Zavala was acquitted of “aggravated fraud” in 2023. The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice had ordered a “retrial” following the cassation appeal filed by the Office of the Attorney General, the final appeal permitted by law. The hearing—the third case Mr. Zavala would face—was reportedly scheduled for April 11, 2025.
On April 2, 2025, Mr. Zavala was reportedly transferred from the police station to the Mariona prison, where he had been detained previously and where the guards he denounced for alleged acts of torture and other abuses are located.
On April 11, 2025, during the hearing before the Third Sentencing Tribunal of San Salvador, Mr. Zavala’s defense reportedly requested more time for documentation. The hearing was placed under seal and suspended, pending rescheduling for a new date.
Regarding Ms. Ivania Cruz and Mr. Rudy Joya
On February 25, 2025, at the same time that police and prosecutors were conducting the raid on the UNIDEHC headquarters in San Salvador, other officers reportedly carried out another raid on Ms. Ivania Cruz’s home. At that time, Ms. Cruz’s mother, an elderly woman, was in the house; she did not oppose the raid but requested the presence of a lawyer. The prosecutors reportedly presented the search warrant only in the presence of a lawyer. At the end of the raid, they took a safe containing private documents belonging to Ms. Cruz’s brother. During this time, Ms. Cruz was in Spain with Mr. Rudy Joya, undertaking an advocacy trip—scheduled since November 2024—with organizations and public officials.
On March 13, 2025, the Office of the Attorney General reportedly declared that it had an arrest warrant against Ms. Cruz and Mr. Joya for the crimes of “illicit associations and commercialization of subdivisions,” as the alleged “leaders of the criminal structure.”
On March 18, 2025, the first hearing in the case against Ms. Cruz and Mr. Joya was reportedly held in absentia before the Fifth Tribunal Against Organized Crime. The judge reportedly ordered the case to proceed to the instruction phase for a period of six months, scheduling the second hearing for May 5, 2025.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our concern over the alleged arbitrary detention of the human rights defender Mr. Zavala, the attempts to criminalize him through three distinct criminal cases against him, in addition to the charges and arrest warrants issued against Ms. Cruz and Mr. Joya, the raids on the UNIDEHC office and Ms. Cruz’s residence, and the arbitrary detention and charges against the 24 community leaders from La Floresta. We express our grave concern regarding the alleged misuse of criminal law against the human rights defenders from UNIDEHC and the community leaders from La Floresta, which appear to be direct reprisals for their legitimate human rights work, particularly their work to counter efforts to evict the families residing in the La Floresta estate. We are troubled that the three criminal cases opened against Mr. Zavala seem to be reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of expression to denounce the alleged abuses he witnessed during his detention in the penal centers. Our concern is compounded by Mr. Zavala’s transfer to the “Mariona” prison, where the same guards he denounced for supposed acts of torture and other abuses are located, placing his physical and psychological integrity at serious risk. We also underscore with concern that this case is likely to generate a significant chilling and deterrent effect on other organizations and human rights defenders.
