Ana María Méndez Dardón, Director for Central America at WOLA, testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on September 9, 2025, in a hearing titled, “Laws Regulating Foreign NGOs: Human Rights Implications” which aimed to identify global impacts of such laws on humanitarian efforts, freedom of expression and association, and transparency.
Méndez Dardón highlighted the cases of Nicaragua and El Salvador to call attention to the link between anti-NGO laws and the suppression of civil society as a route toward authoritarian rule. She cited the 2020 Foreign Agents Law in Nicaragua which, along with a host of other state actions targeting voices critical to the Ortega regime, resulted in one of the most closed civic spaces in the Western Hemisphere. She also noted El Salvador’s 2025 Foreign Agents Law which empowers the government to dismantle civil society organizations and eliminate their access to vital support under the pretext of “maintaining order.”
The right of societies to hold their leaders accountable is an unmistakable element of democratic institutions, without which human rights violations, erosion of the rule of law, and corruption become more likely. Ana María Méndez Dardón’s testimony spotlights the struggle for openness and accountability within the region and emphasizes the need for supportive U.S. policy.
“In Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and elsewhere in the Americas, human rights defenders, youth, women’s groups, indigenous leaders, and journalists are increasingly operating in fear, exile, or not at all.” she said in the hearing.
Watch the full hearing here.
Read the summary or full testimony here.
