The Basque Parliament rejects the Foreign Agents’ Law that criminalises solidarity in El Salvador

Date: 2025 May 23

On Thursday 22 May, the Basque Parliament held a plenary debate on a Non-Legislative Proposal (NLP) regarding compliance with the ruling in the Beatriz case and the situation in El Salvador, submitted by the parliamentary groups of the PNV, EH Bildu, PSE and Sumar. The NLP was approved unanimously by all members of parliament present in the chamber, with all groups voting in favour except Vox.

The debate took place the same week that the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passed the Foreign Agents’ Law, which criminalises solidarity and international cooperation and which, according to the Basque NGDO Coordination Group, “could mark a point of no return, institutionalising the persecution of social organisations and paving the way for the disappearance of the entire collective of associations and opposing voices in El Salvador”. Among other measures, this new law includes a 30% tax on all donations received by NGOs.

Present at the parliamentary debate was the Basque delegation monitoring the human rights situation in El Salvador, led by the Basque Government and made up of the Basque NGDO Coordination Group, eLankidetza – Basque Agency for Cooperation and Solidarity, the Basque Parliament, Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin, the Assembly for Cooperation for Peace/Bakerako Lankidetza Batzarrea ACPP-BLB and Paz y Solidaridad Euskadi.

Alongside the Basque delegation, and in addition to representatives of numerous Basque NGDOs, was the human rights lawyer and defender Ivania Berenice Cruz Cruz, from UNIDEHC – the Human and Community Rights Defence Unit of El Salvador, currently in exile in the Basque Country.

After the plenary session, Ivania was joined in the Basque Parliament press room by Irene Molero Gurrutxaga, general coordinator of the Basque NGDO Coordination Group and Leire Lasa Fernández, from Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin, on behalf of the Basque delegation.

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