El Salvador's AI law created ANIA and a national AI registry, the first standalone AI statute in Central America

Q: Who has to comply with El Salvador's AI law?

The Assembly record states the law applies to all natural or legal persons, regardless of their degree of autonomy or how they are constituted, that carry out activities or provide services related to the development, research, and application of AI technologies.

By Anthony Guerriero, Founder and Editor, The Leveraged Years
Dateline: San Salvador, 26 February 2025. Last verified: 2026-07-25.

While the rest of the region was still drafting strategy papers, El Salvador put an artificial intelligence statute on the books. On 26 February 2025 the Asamblea Legislativa approved the Ley de Fomento de la Inteligencia Artificial y Tecnologias (Law for the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence and Technologies) with 57 votes. That vote gave Central America its first standalone national AI law, and it did what most promotion laws avoid: it built an agency and a registry with teeth.

That combination is what makes this instrument worth citing rather than skimming. Plenty of governments have published AI principles. El Salvador named a regulator, gave it a register of who is building and operating AI inside the country, and later came back to strengthen that regulator's legal footing. A small jurisdiction that moved fast is a more useful data point than a large one still consulting.

What the statute does

The law is framed as a promotion statute. Its stated purpose is to advance the development, research, and application of artificial intelligence and similar technologies, to fold AI learning into the education system, and to push the private sector to invest in AI training. The Assembly's own account describes practical targets: applying AI to electricity, health, security, and transport, monitoring water quality and detecting well leaks, and optimizing geothermal resources.

But the promotional framing hides the operative core. The same law that talks about innovation also stands up institutions. According to the Asamblea Legislativa, the new regulatory framework provides for AI laboratories, research centers, a national AI agency, and a national registry. The law also settles a question many jurisdictions leave open: it provides that intellectual property resulting from AI research, development, or innovation carried out inside El Salvador, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, belongs exclusively to the developing entity or person.

ANIA and the AI registry

The center of gravity is the Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ANIA). The Assembly describes it as the governing authority for the promotion of AI development, research, and application, run by an executive director. ANIA is charged with coordinating and supervising compliance by the regulated parties, running technical assistance and training programs, and organizing the state's AI activities.

Paired with the agency is the registry. Here is the operative passage, in the Assembly's own words:

El nuevo marco regulatorio contempla la creacion de laboratorios de inteligencia artificial, centros de investigacion y la Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ANIA), entidad que se encargara de que se cumpla la ley. Asimismo, se creara el Registro Nacional de Desarrollo de Inteligencia Artificial, administrado por la ANIA, que se encargara de identificar a los desarrolladores y operadores de inteligencia artificial y garantizar el uso etico y responsable que hacen de la IA.

English gloss: "The new regulatory framework provides for the creation of artificial intelligence laboratories, research centers, and the National Artificial Intelligence Agency (ANIA), the entity responsible for ensuring the law is complied with. Likewise, a National Artificial Intelligence Development Registry will be created, administered by ANIA, which will be responsible for identifying artificial intelligence developers and operators and guaranteeing the ethical and responsible use they make of AI."

Read that carefully. The registry is not a voluntary directory. It is the mechanism through which ANIA identifies who is developing and operating AI, and it is tied to an ethical-use mandate. The committee dictamen adds that ANIA will form and administer the register, issue the rules that govern how it works, and coordinate with the Ministry of Education on AI in schooling.

El Salvador did not stop at passage. In plenary session number 64, legislators amended articles 7, 8, 9, and 11 and added a new article 8-A. The Assembly says the first change redefined ANIA's legal nature, specifying that it is a decentralized institution of public law, with legal personality, functional autonomy, and indefinite duration. Article 8-A created a legal basis for the agency's assets and budget, listing state contributions, service income, international cooperation, donations, and investments as funding sources. Those are not cosmetic edits. A regulator with its own budget line and indefinite legal standing is a regulator built to last.

Who is covered

The scope is deliberately wide. On coverage, the Assembly record is explicit:

Estarian sujetas a esta ley todas las personas naturales o juridicas, sin importar su grado de autonomia o regimen de constitucion, que desarrollen actividades o presten servicios concernientes al desarrollo, investigacion y aplicacion de tecnologias relativas a la inteligencia artificial.

English gloss: "All natural or legal persons, regardless of their degree of autonomy or their regime of constitution, that carry out activities or provide services concerning the development, research, and application of technologies relating to artificial intelligence, would be subject to this law."

In practice that reaches local developers, operators, and service providers working with AI inside El Salvador. The Assembly also notes that ANIA is meant to work in coordination with the State Cybersecurity Agency and that existing rules, such as the data protection law, continue to apply to how the technology is used. So a company operating in the country is looking at the AI statute plus cybersecurity and data protection obligations, not the AI statute alone.

Effective dates and status

The anchor date is 26 February 2025, when the Asamblea Legislativa approved the law with 57 votes. The committee of Technology, Tourism and Investment had issued its favorable dictamen the day before. The reform package that strengthened ANIA's legal nature, budget, and internal governance came later, in plenary session 64. The table below sets out the load-bearing facts.

El Salvador AI law: key provisions and milestones
Element	Detail	Source
Instrument	Ley de Fomento de la Inteligencia Artificial y Tecnologias (AI promotion law approved by the Asamblea Legislativa)	Asamblea Legislativa
Approved	26 February 2025, 57 votes	Asamblea Legislativa
Regulator	Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ANIA)	Asamblea Legislativa
Registry	Registro Nacional de Desarrollo de Inteligencia Artificial, administered by ANIA	Asamblea Legislativa
Coverage	All natural or legal persons developing, researching, or applying AI in El Salvador	Asamblea Legislativa
Reforms	Articles 7, 8, 9, 11 amended and article 8-A added; ANIA redefined as decentralized public-law body	Asamblea Legislativa

Cross-border read: first in Central America, and why that matters

The wedge here is jurisdictional. When you search in English for "AI law Central America," you get very little primary material, because most of the region has not legislated and the Salvadoran record is in Spanish. That gap is exactly why this instrument is worth documenting precisely. El Salvador is the first Central American country to adopt a standalone AI statute, and it paired a promotion agenda with a named regulator and a registry, a structure closer to a licensing regime than to a policy paper.

For a US or multinational reader, three points travel across the border. First, if your product touches El Salvador, the registry means the government intends to know who is developing and operating AI there. Second, the intellectual property clause is unusually founder-friendly, assigning ownership of AI-derived IP to the developer. Third, the reforms show intent to make ANIA durable, with its own budget and indefinite standing. Compared with the European Union's risk-tiered AI Act, El Salvador's approach is lighter on prohibitions and heavier on registration and central coordination. That is a distinct regulatory model, now live in a real jurisdiction.

What this law does NOT do

Precision matters more than hype, so here are the limits. The public Assembly record describes the law as a promotion statute that creates ANIA and a registry. It does not, in the material we verified, publish a schedule of monetary fines or a risk-tier classification like the European Union's, and we did not confirm a specific penalty amount at the primary source, so we do not state one. The law is not a data protection law; the Assembly points instead to the existing data protection law and the State Cybersecurity Agency for those functions. It does not, on this record, ban or restrict particular AI systems by risk category. And it binds El Salvador only, not other Central American states. Where the law's article-level enforcement text or implementing regulations go beyond what the Assembly has published, treat those details as unconfirmed until the Diario Oficial text or ANIA's own rules are in hand.

Key facts

Instrument: Ley de Fomento de la Inteligencia Artificial y Tecnologias, the AI promotion law approved by the Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador. (Some secondary accounts cite a legislative decree number for the statute; we could not match that number to an official Asamblea or Diario Oficial record, so we do not state one here.)
Issuer and date: Approved by the Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador on 26 February 2025 with 57 votes.
Regulator: Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (ANIA), the governing body responsible for enforcing the law; later redefined as a decentralized public-law institution with functional autonomy and indefinite duration.
Registry: Registro Nacional de Desarrollo de Inteligencia Artificial, administered by ANIA, to identify AI developers and operators.
Who is covered: All natural or legal persons that develop, research, or apply AI technologies in El Salvador.
Status: Adopted and subsequently reformed to strengthen ANIA's legal nature and budget. First standalone AI statute in Central America.

Frequently asked questions

What is El Salvador's AI law called?

The Ley de Fomento de la Inteligencia Artificial y Tecnologias (Law for the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence and Technologies), approved by the Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador on 26 February 2025 with 57 votes. It is the first standalone national AI statute adopted in Central America.

What is ANIA?

ANIA is the Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial, the governing body the law creates to enforce it. Later reforms redefined ANIA as a decentralized public-law institution with legal personality, functional autonomy, and indefinite duration, led by an executive director.

Does the law create an AI registry?

Yes. The law establishes a national AI development registry administered by ANIA, which identifies AI developers and operators and is meant to promote ethical and responsible use of AI.

Who has to comply?

Per the Assembly record, the law applies to all natural or legal persons, regardless of their degree of autonomy or how they are constituted, that carry out activities or provide services related to the development, research, and application of AI technologies in El Salvador.