A year ago, the Bukele administration enacted the Foreign Agents Law, which civil-society groups say has been used to subject advocacy organizations to financial and legal pressure, forcing some to dissolve or leave the country. (Photo by Joey Sussman/Shutterstock)
On May 20, 2025, the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele enacted legislation ostensibly intended to spotlight how nongovernmental organizations use funding they receive from foreign sources. A year later, advocacy groups charge that the true objective has been to shutter environmental- and rights-advocacy groups critical of Bukele, whose blend of populism and repression under a youthful veneer is described by some political scientists as “millennial authoritarianism.” Critics contend the legislation, called the Foreign Agents Law (LAEX), has enabled the Bukele administration to stifle civil-society groups through financial strangulation, self-censorship, and judicial persecution. The harsh climate was the focus of a June 8 report by the Central American Regional Human Rights Monitoring Team, a civil-society network that identifies rights threats in the region. The document points out that the Salvadoran law, which took effect a year earlier, included a 30% tax on foreign donations. The government... [Log in to read more]
