(Washington, DC) – El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly has approved a far-reaching “Foreign Agents” law that grants the government of President Nayib Bukele broad powers to monitor, sanction, and dissolve organizations labeled as foreign agents, Human Rights Watch said today.
On May 20, 2025, the Legislative Assembly, controlled by Bukele’s New Ideas party, passed the law with little debate and no public consultation. The law requires people and organizations that receive funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” with a newly established Foreign Agents Registry under the Interior Ministry. The law claims to promote “transparency,” but in practice provides the government expansive authority to control, stigmatize, and sanction human rights groups and independent media outlets that receive international support.
“There’s no question that the Foreign Agents law is about silencing those who expose corruption, human rights violations, and secretive negotiations with gang leaders by the Bukele government,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Labeling critical organizations as foreign agents, slapping them with crushing taxes, and handing unchecked power to a government registry does not improve transparency, but stifles dissent.”
The law defines a foreign agent as any person or entity that “responds to the interests of, or is controlled or financed, directly or indirectly, by a foreign principal.” It defines a “foreign principal” broadly as any person or entity based abroad, including foreign governments, political parties, or organizations, as well as “people determined by the Foreign Agents Registry to fall under this category.”
Those who fail to register face sanctions, including fines and the “suspension or cancellation” of their legal status. The law also imposes a 30 percent tax on all foreign funding, including donations, goods, and services.
The law bars registered foreign agents from engaging in vaguely defined “activities with political or other purposes” that have the “objective” of “affecting the public order” or “threatening the social and political stability of the country.” It prohibits anonymous donations and requires prior approval to modify how funds are used.
Organizations receiving foreign funds would be required to use a “label” indicating that the information they shared is “transmitted on behalf of” foreigners or “financed” by foreigners.
The law also grants the executive branch broad authority to pass regulations to enforce the law and allows the Interior Ministry to exempt specific organizations.
The Foreign Agents law violates El Salvador’s obligations under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights, both of which protect freedom of expression and association. Any restrictions on these rights must be necessary, proportionate, and clearly defined.
Human Rights Watch has documented that other countries, such as Russia and Nicaragua, have used “foreign agent” laws as a tool to control, silence, and stigmatize independent civil society and media.
In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights found that Russia’s foreign agents law violated the right to freedoms of expression and association. The court found that “the requirement to use the stigmatizing and misleading ‘foreign agent’ label in public communications” created an “environment of forced self-stigmatization.” It said that the Russian legislation “bears the hallmarks of a totalitarian regime.”
The European Parliament has condemned Russia’s law as a tool to stifle dissent, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has made clear that it violates international norms.
In 2023, then-Senator Marco Rubio, now US Secretary of State, co-sponsored bipartisan legislation on Nicaragua, citing findings that the Nicaraguan foreign agents law was “problematic” and should be repealed.
“Foreign governments should condemn this atrocious legislation,” Goebertus said. “There’s no reason for those who have criticized similar legislation in Nicaragua and Russia to stay quiet now.”
