Civil society organizations both transnational and domestic have played an instrumental role in promoting transparency in Latin America in recent years. This paper explores the advocacy processes that have resulted in the adoption of access to information legislation in Honduras, El Salvador and Panama, focusing on the interplay between transnational civil society organizations and domestic civil society actors. Research on transnational advocacy has to date paid inadequate attention to how the characteristics of the national political setting shape the strategies and effectiveness of international actors seeking to influence domestic policies and practices. This study examines this issue by comparing the involvement of international and transnational advocacy actors in the three countries. The analysis reveals that the primary components of the political opportunity structure of international actors seeking to promote change in domestic environments is the expected cost of policy change in the domestic setting and the viability of domestic movements themselves.
