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In the early 1990s, El Salvador and Nicaragua saw the emergence of non-partisan civil societies made up of a constellation of professional and highly personalized associations and NGOs. In his article, the author revisits the constitution of this space and its dynamics. First, he shows that the empowerment of these civil societies was the result of prosaic rather than ideological struggles. Then, he demonstrates that their structuring was based on their plasticity and on the rent effects that they allow. In conclusion, the author shows that the closure of the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan associative worlds has been accompanied by a personification and privatization of the organizations that compose them.