Artificial Intelligence · El Salvador
AI regulation in El Salvador: laws & policy (2026)
El Salvador shaded by its artificial intelligence status
AI in El Salvador: comprehensive law.
FrameworkLaw for the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence and Technologies (Decreto No. 234), enacted 26 February 2025, effective 11 March 2025; administered by the National Artificial Intelligence Agency (ANIA), a decentralized body under the Presidency of the Republic
El Salvador became the first Latin American country to enact dedicated AI legislation when the Legislative Assembly passed Decreto No. 234 on 26 February 2025 (Official Gazette No. 43, Vol. 446, 3 March 2025). The law is promotion-oriented, establishing ANIA as the national AI regulator and mandating a risk-assessment framework, a developer registry, intellectual-property protections, and core ethical principles. A companion Robotic Technologies Law, also administered by ANIA, was published in the Official Gazette on 21 July 2025, extending the framework to robotics.
Key points
The Legislative Assembly passed the Ley de Fomento a la Inteligencia Artificial y Tecnologías on 26 February 2025; it entered into force on 11 March 2025. The law takes a developer-friendly, innovation-first approach rather than a restrictive one, making El Salvador the first country in Latin America with a comprehensive AI statute.
The law created the Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ANIA) as an autonomous decentralized institution attached to the Presidency. ANIA manages the national AI registry, issues technical and security standards, coordinates with the Cybersecurity Agency on personal-data handling, and oversees compliance and enforcement.
ANIA was given 90 days from the law's effective date (i.e., by approximately June 2025) to publish a risk-assessment framework balancing innovation against public safety, and to promulgate registration regulations. AI systems that handle confidential, restricted, or personal data face mandatory security requirements; companies conducting AI R&D must register with ANIA to access legal protections.
The law grants IP rights from AI research and development to the developer, and explicitly extends legal protection to open-source AI models, a notable first in the region. Private entities are prohibited from anti-competitive practices that unjustifiably restrict free competition in AI development or deployment.
All activities under the law must adhere to statutory principles of equity, transparency, responsibility, informed consent, data minimization, inclusion, and non-discrimination, mirroring internationally accepted AI ethics guidelines but without adopting the EU AI Act's prohibitions or high-risk classification tiers.
A companion Robotic Technologies Law (also administered by ANIA) was published in the Official Gazette on 21 July 2025, covering commercial, healthcare, transportation, and public-space robotics with risk classification, a national registry, tax incentives, and test labs. Separately, El Salvador signed a letter of intent with NVIDIA in April 2025 to build a national AI laboratory; sovereign deployment of NVIDIA B300 chips was reported in mid-2025.
Timeline - major decisions & events
ANIA presented El Salvador's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2026, built on pillars of innovation, sovereignty, human potential, and abundance — centered on a geothermal-powered National Sovereign Data Center. UNESCO simultaneously published its Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) results for El Salvador, providing international validation of the country's AI governance trajectory.
UNESCO ↗President Bukele and xAI announced deployment of Grok AI tutors across all 5,000-plus Salvadoran public schools serving over one million students — the first country-wide government adoption of a frontier AI tutoring system. Pilots launched in Q1 2026 with full nationwide rollout planned by 2027.
Presidencia de la República de El Salvador ↗El Salvador stood up ANIA as an autonomous body reporting directly to the Presidency, fulfilling the mandate of the March 2025 AI Law. ANIA operates as a single-regulator contact for domestic and global AI developers, manages the National Registry of AI Development, and coordinates AI curriculum integration across the national education system.
El Salvador in English ↗Through a partnership with Hydra Host, El Salvador became the first country to receive a sovereign allocation of NVIDIA B300 processors for its National AI Laboratory, enabling domestic model training powered by geothermal energy — the physical infrastructure underpinning the country's sovereign AI ambitions.
Data Center Dynamics ↗El Salvador became the first country in Latin America — and the first in the world to explicitly protect open-source AI models — with its AI Promotion Law taking effect. Registered developers gain liability exemptions for third-party misuse; ANIA was given 90 days to issue technical security criteria and a registration framework.
Library of Congress – Global Legal Monitor ↗The Salvadoran Legislative Assembly adopted Decree No. 23, establishing ANIA, a national AI registry, and IP-ownership rules for AI-generated works. The law mandates compliance with the Personal Data Protection Law for any AI system processing personal data, formally linking the two regulatory pillars.
Digital Policy Alert ↗El Salvador's first dedicated data-protection statute granted citizens ARCO-POL rights (Access, Rectification, Cancellation, Opposition, Portability, Oblivion, Limitation) and imposed consent, transparency, and data-minimization obligations on all processors — establishing the privacy guardrails that the 2025 AI Law explicitly requires AI systems to respect.
Central Law ↗The Legislative Assembly passed El Salvador's first comprehensive cybersecurity statute, creating the State Cybersecurity Agency (ACE) as the national coordinator for cybersecurity policy. ACE's mandate covers securing digital and AI infrastructure, complementing both the Data Protection Law and the forthcoming AI regulatory framework.
U.S. International Trade Administration ↗El Salvador eliminated income tax, capital-gains tax, customs duties, and municipal taxes for 15 years on activities including software development, cloud computing, AI research, and hardware manufacturing. This fiscal framework is the direct precursor to the 2025 AI Law, designed to make El Salvador a tax-neutral hub for technology investment.
Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador ↗The Legislative Assembly approved a framework for tokenizing real-world assets and issuing stablecoins, administered by the Central Reserve Bank. While fintech-focused, LEAD expanded legal infrastructure for digital technologies and established regulatory precedent for government oversight of emerging technology systems.
Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales (CNAD) ↗El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, establishing a political and ideological framework of high-risk digital-technology embrace. The law set the template for El Salvador's subsequent regulatory posture toward disruptive technologies: lead globally, attract innovation, and accept first-mover risk — the same philosophy later applied to AI.
Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (full English text of Decree No. 57) ↗El Salvador - other topics
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