Bukele blames NGOs for protest outside his residence and promotes ‘foreign agents law’ to suffocate them

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele launched a crackdown on human rights organizations on Tuesday, ordering that 30% of their income be withheld. Bukele’s decision, similar to that adopted by his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, in 2020 to stifle NGOs, came the day after military police for the first time repressed a protest outside his residence. The violent intervention by uniformed officers set a historic precedent in El Salvador since the signing of the peace accords in 1992 to end the country’s civil war.

It all began on Monday night, when some 300 farming families from the El Bosque community held a peaceful protest about 500 meters from the entrance to the private Los Sueños complex, where the president lives and is building his new $1.4 million presidential residence. The farmers, carrying signs and shouting slogans, demanded that the president intervene to prevent a court-ordered eviction.

Around 8:00 p.m., a group of Military Police officers equipped with ballistic shields pushed back protesters — including senior citizens and children — to prevent them from approaching the residential complex. Riot police and Public Security officers then arrived and dispersed the protest, arresting five community leaders.

The scene was broadcast live by several media outlets. In one video, recorded by a journalist from the San Jacinto Collective, a dozen police officers are seen shoving two community leaders and forcing them to walk toward a patrol car, hunched over, with their heads at waist level and their arms behind their backs. One of them shouts, “No, no, no, please, no!” while the other hugs him in an attempt to avoid capture. The two men were identified as José Ángel Pérez and Gustavo Castro.

By the end of the night, four of the five arrested leaders had been released. Some reported being beaten by the agents and showed bruises on their bodies. The only one who remained under arrest was José Ángel Pérez, president of the El Bosque community.

Persecution continues

The following morning, Alejandro Henríquez, an activist and legal representative of the El Bosque cooperative, was arrested as he left his office and charged with public disorder and resistance.

According to Carlos Flores, a representative of the Water Forum, which supports the community, the police used a team of 11 officers, some with rifles, and a private vehicle to carry out the arrest. “They pointed their weapons at us and refused to say what crimes they were taking him for,” Flores told EL PAÍS.

Flores also stated that the following morning, police officers went to the El Bosque community to search house by house for the people who appeared in the videos posted on social media. Four of the captured and later released leaders remain in hiding for their safety. This newspaper was able to contact one of them by phone, but he stated that he could not comment for fear of reprisals.

The incident sparked a strong reaction on social media and condemnation from at least 18 local human rights organizations, as well as several international organizations, including Amnesty International. All condemned the repression and the use of military personnel against civilians.

Use of Military Police

The use of the Military Police to suppress civil protests is unprecedented in El Salvador. Since the signing of the peace accords, the only state force used to break up demonstrations has been the National Civil Police, using Public Security agents or, failing that, officers from the Law Enforcement Unit. During his six years in office, Bukele has boasted that he has not used “a single smoke bomb” to break up protests in response to accusations of authoritarianism against him.

According to a publication by the Salvadoran Armed Forces, this unit’s function is to provide security at installations and combat areas, control internal traffic, protect important figures, conduct motorized patrols, and ensure discipline, law, and order.

However, human rights defenders maintain that, even though the protest was staged at the presidential residence, there was no threat that justified military intervention. Zaira Navas, head of the Anti-Corruption team at Cristosal — the country’s leading human rights organization — recalled that the president’s security is the responsibility of the Presidential Battalion, not the Military Police.

“The Constitution of the Republic clearly establishes that public security is the responsibility of the National Civil Police, not the Armed Forces. The latter can only be used for internal purposes in very specific cases,” explains Navas.

Suffocating NGOs

Just after 5:00 p.m. the following day, Bukele reacted to the scandal through his personal X account. “Yesterday we witnessed how humble people were manipulated by self-proclaimed leftist groups and globalist NGOs, whose only real objective is to attack the government,” he wrote. The term “globalist” has a pejorative connotation and is frequently used by authoritarian governments to discredit human rights organizations that promote democracy or transparency.

In his post, Bukele acknowledged that the situation in the El Bosque community was “difficult,” but asserted that he would not use public resources to address it. “It would be unfair for Salvadorans who pay rent or housing fees to have to use their taxes to finance the land owned by those who simply make more noise,” he said. He then announced: “For this reason, and given the apparent concern of these NGOs, I have decided to send the Foreign Agents Bill to the Legislative Assembly, which will include a 30% tax on all donations these NGOs receive. These funds will be used to pay off the cooperative’s debt.”

Bukele had already promoted a draft of this law in late 2021. However, the initiative failed due to internal resistance and international pressure. Organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International expressed their opposition, arguing that the proposal violated international human rights standards. They warned that its approval would represent a direct threat to civil society and the independent press.

At the time, the proposal was compared to the law passed in Ortega’s Nicaragua. On October 15, 2020, the National Assembly in Managua — controlled by the ruling party — passed the Foreign Agents Regulation Law, which requires individuals and organizations that receive foreign funding to register with the state as “foreign agents” and submit to strict government oversight. The law also prohibits their participation in domestic political activities and provides for sanctions such as fines or the cancellation of permits in case of noncompliance.

At the time of writing, the details of the new draft that Bukele will send to the Legislative Assembly, also dominated by his party, are still unknown. However, the previous proposal contemplated a 40% tax on organizations or media outlets that the government considered involved in political issues or that it deemed disruptive to the country’s order and stability.

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