Non-Profits Reject Foreign Agents Law in El Salvador
Dozens of humanitarian organizations
The law, which imposes a 30% tax on donations received by civil organizations, is described as highly repressive.
HAVANA TIMES – More than 70 humanitarian organizations from El Salvador and abroad have rejected the Foreign Agents Law approved on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, by Congress and promoted by President Nayib Bukele, stating that it “enables arbitrary criminalization” and is part of an “authoritarian escalation.”
The organizations also denounced the recent arrests of human rights defenders, including anti-corruption lawyer Ruth López and environmentalist Alejandro Henriquez.
The law imposes a 30% tax on donations received by civil society organizations.
A “revenge” law
“These developments are part of the Salvadoran state’s escalation of violence that has created a dangerous situation of criminalization and censorship of human rights defense,” said Veronica Reyna of the Passionist Social Service at a press conference.
She added that the approved initiative “directly threatens the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and the right to association.”
Reyna warned that such laws, also passed in countries like Nicaragua, have been used “to deny or revoke the legal status of organizations deemed uncomfortable by the ruling government.”
She expressed concern about “the involvement of the Office of the Attorney General and the introduction of criminal liability for supposed threats to national security—without a clear definition—which reinforce a legal framework that enables the arbitrary criminalization of the work of civil society organizations.”
In her view, the law passed by the ruling Nuevas Ideas party, which controls Congress, is a way to “punish organizations” that denounce violations and lack of transparency, while it “rewards” those that perform services the state is responsible for.
She also stated, “We are awaiting a strong response from the Diplomatic Corps,” because the law in question would condition international cooperation.
According to Gabriela Santos from the Human Rights Institute at the Central American University (Idhuca), this “is a law that seeks to silence, it is an act of revenge.”
“This latest move by the state to approve this law is simply a deepening of the desire to silence voices that demand environmental protection, respect for rights, and the release of those arbitrarily detained,” she added.
NGO funds are already audited
Meanwhile, Eduardo Escobar of the organization Accion Ciudadana said that one of the official party’s arguments for passing the law—that it aims to make NGO funding more transparent—is false.
“We must categorically refute the Government and the Legislative Assembly on this point, because civil society has always accounted for the funds it receives,” he said.
“We have to submit our financial statements every year,” and these documents “show who funds us,” and “it’s not like we do whatever we want with the money; on the contrary, we are heavily audited,” Escobar explained.
“They want us to be transparent—which we already are—so why aren’t they transparent about who funds their electoral campaigns? Why aren’t they transparent about public works and procurement information, which they routinely deny the public?” he questioned.
Eric Zelaya, of the Movement for the Defense of Workers’ Rights, stated that “what has happened is part of an authoritarian escalation.”
“This government increasingly resembles that of Nicaragua,” he said, adding that “this measure was already implemented in Nicaragua, and one year after its enactment, 3,000 NGOs had been shut down and their assets confiscated.”
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.