We asked for nominations from the public and OCCRP editors chose two winners out of more than 130 names that were submitted.
Ruth López, El Salvador
Chief Legal Officer in the Anti-Corruption Unit at Cristosal, a human rights organization
Ruth López, Chief Legal Officer in the Anti-Corruption Unit at Cristosal
Ruth López Alfaro is a preeminent figure in the fight against systemic corruption and authoritarian overreach in El Salvador, and is an internationally recognized defender of the rule of law. She spearheaded high-stakes legal challenges against President Nayib Bukele’s administration, including investigations into the misuse of public funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, state-sponsored espionage via Pegasus spyware, and the lack of transparency surrounding the country's Bitcoin implementation. Beginning in 2024, Bukele’s second term has seen an alarming increase in the harassment, persecution, and criminalization of human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and civil society organizations.
The arbitrary arrest of López on May 18, 2025, was part of an ongoing crackdown against human rights defenders and journalists. National Civil Police agents entered her home without a warrant late at night, holding her incommunicado for 32 hours in what international observers described as a "short-term forced disappearance."
The state’s accusations against her — first embezzlement and later illicit enrichment — have been widely condemned as politically motivated fabrications. Under the Salvadoran criminal code, López could not have committed embezzlement during her time as a technical adviser because she never managed public funds.
Instead of a fair legal process, she faced a chain of unlawful actions: being shuttled between detention facilities, denied access to counsel for days, and eventually transferred to the high-security Izalco prison in defiance of a judicial order where she was held incommunicado for months.
Despite her continued imprisonment, López remains a symbol of resistance against the criminalization of dissent. Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience in 2025, and the American Bar Association honored her with the 2025 International Human Rights Award.
In December 2025, the judge overseeing López’s case extended the prosecutors’ investigative deadline, and also extended her pretrial detention for six more months without holding a hearing or allowing the defense to present counter arguments.
In El Salvador, the excessive use of pretrial detention has been used in many cases to hold individuals in detention for years without trial. This systematic practice has been criticized by the United Nations special rapporteurs on human rights defenders, as a form of punishment imposed on political opponents and human rights champions.
Cristosal and advocacy groups are demanding a public, speedy, and fair trial, as well as an end to Lopez’s unjustified pretrial detention.
López’s resilience in the face of injustice and judicial collapse shows profound bravery.
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Carmen Aristegui, Mexico
Investigative Journalist, Aristegui Noticias
Carmen Aristegui, Investigative Journalist, Aristegui Noticias
Throughout a long and distinguished career in television, radio, and digital media, Carmen Aristegui has investigated corruption, abuse of power, and high-level conflicts of interest.
Most recently, her investigative team at Aristegui Noticias published the explosive "Televisa Leaks," a five-terabyte trove of internal communications revealing a clandestine operation within the world’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster. The leak detailed the "Palomar" operation — a systematic smear campaign orchestrated from Televisa’s headquarters to fabricate news, manipulate public opinion through bot armies, and destroy the reputations of competitors, judges, and journalists. By shining a light on this playbook, Aristegui exposed how corporate giants can function as a shadow arm of the state to maintain political control and suppress dissent.
Her role as a watchdog is defined by a refusal to be silenced, even after facing severe professional and personal retaliation.
Aristegui’s investigation into the "Casa Blanca" (White House) scandal — which revealed that the wife of then-President Enrique Peña Nieto had purchased a multi-million-dollar mansion from a government contractor — remains one of the most significant corruption exposés in modern Mexican history. The fallout from this report led to her firing from MVS Radio and marked the beginning of an era of unprecedented harassment. She was among the journalists, activists, and human rights defenders discovered to have been targeted by the invasive Pegasus spyware, with the government attempting to monitor not only her work but also the private life of her teenage son.
In one of the world's most dangerous environments for the press, Aristegui founded her own independent outlet, Aristegui Noticias, and despite constant smear campaigns and threats, she continues to hold power to account. Her bravery in taking on both the presidency and media monopolies like Televisa proves that she is a defender of the public's right to know.