President Nayib Bukele has issued a resounding ultimatum to several municipalities in El Salvador accused of imposing illegal and abusive fees, marking a turning point in the fight against institutional abuse.
After nearly 22 years of Salvadorans suffering under gangs, Bukele warned that municipalities “trying to outsmart the people” will not be tolerated.
The president aims to halt practices he labeled as “mafia” and “destructive to the economy” through strict deadlines and threats of criminal action.
🚨 The Ultimatum: Reverse Charges or Face Justice
Bukele ordered all municipalities to reverse, by Monday, March 17, 2025, any irregular increases in:
- Business licenses (e.g., San Salvador’s municipality raised a license fee from $100 to $3,000 without justification).
- Arbitrary fines (e.g., charging businesses for placing signs like “churritos for sale” on their own property).
- Illegal taxes (e.g., one municipality charged phone vendors $200, reviving the defunct CESC tax).
Consequences for non-compliance:
- Criminal charges for extortion: Penalties of 10 to 20 years in prison, especially if linked to organized crime. Mayors and council members who ignore the order will face lawsuits.
- Public shaming: “Those who don’t comply will be made an example for the entire country,” Bukele warned.
🔍 Highlighted Cases of Abuse
- Ahuachapán:
- Charged phone vendors $200, reviving the CESC tax—abolished in 2020 for being “a robbery of the people.”
- Historical irony: The original CESC tax (5% on tech products) was justified for “security,” but Bukele noted that era had “the least security in history.”
- Inflated Licenses:
- San Salvador’s municipality raised a license fee to $3,000 (from $100) without legal or technical backing.
- Absurd Fines:
- Fines for simple signage, a practice Bukele compared to “mafia-style tolls.”
🛑 “I Was a Mayor—I Know How This Works”
Bukele reinforced his moral authority by citing his local government experience:
- Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán (2012-2015): A small municipality managed without abusive fees.
- Mayor of San Salvador (2015-2018): Oversaw the capital, tackling large-scale challenges.
- Key message: If I could govern without extortion, so can they. No excuses.
💼 Economic Impact: Progress vs. Sabotage
Bukele contrasted national achievements with municipal damage:
- Government Success:
- Secured a German airbag factory creating 1,000 well-paid jobs after two years of negotiations.
- Revived mega-projects like the Port of La Unión.
- Municipal Sabotage:
- 15,000 businesses closed in recent years, costing ~45,000 jobs (3 jobs per business).
- “We’d need 45 factories like the German one to offset this destruction,” he lamented.
⚖️ What’s Next?
- Tuesday, March 18: Bukele will file formal complaints with the Attorney General’s Office against defiant municipalities.
- Legal Process:
- Extortion investigations, including potential raids on municipal offices.
- Penalties of up to 20 years in prison for mayors, council members, or officials involved. At least 10 years for stubborn offenders.
📌 Final Message
- “We didn’t remove one mafia (gangs) to let another take its place”: A warning to abusive officials.
- “The time for robbing the people is over. We’re here to lift the country up, not bury it.”
Want to read Bukele’s full response?
Below is the verbatim English translation of the journalist’s question and President Bukele’s detailed reply about municipal extortion.
Journalist’s Question:
“I’d like to take this opportunity to ask you about municipal fees. A few hours ago, you mentioned that, in addition to the San Salvador Centro municipality, there are other municipalities that have also been imposing improper charges. Can you tell us how many municipalities are involved? Are you considering any legislation to ensure proper fee collection for municipalities? Also, I’d like to know if the overcharged fees will be refunded.“
Note: Below, we’ve included the President’s response exactly as he delivered it. The only additions we’ve made are the text in parentheses and some notes to provide additional context or clarify what he was referring to at the time.
Bukele’s Response:
Yes, thank you very much. The truth is, unfortunately, many municipalities have abused their authority, so to speak. Yesterday, I tweeted about this issue, but I’ve since been informed of many more situations that have occurred.
For example, there’s a municipality in Ahuachapán that’s charging $200 to cellphone vendors. For instance, if you recall, the previous FMLN government (extra note: the FMLN is or was a socialist party that was in power before Bukele. It has been losing supporters because it’s a political party that worsened the country instead of improving it. End of extra note.) imposed a 5% tax on phones, called CESC, and Salvadorans paid 5% on phones and all technology-related items, like computers, etc.”
This tax was supposedly for security, but the irony was that while Salvadorans paid taxes for security, there was less security than ever.
We (Bukele is referring to his government) not only provided security to the people but also eliminated the ‘security tax.’ There’s no more CESC. But what’s the point of eliminating it if a municipality comes up with its own version of CESC and imposes it on phone vendors? In the end, the consumer pays for it. So, there’s a disguised CESC, and that’s illegal.
Another issue is that many other municipalities are charging what I’d call a form of extortion. They tell businesses, ‘Look, your license…’—it’s fine to require licenses, as is done everywhere in the world—but ‘if you used to pay $100, now you’ll pay $3,000.’ That makes no sense.
I understand there needs to be order. I understand there needs to be compliance with the law. But this isn’t that—this is EXTORTION. Charging $3,000 for something that used to cost $100 has no reasonable, financial, legal, or any kind of logic.
And what I said yesterday (referring to the tweet he posted) is that they had to reverse it, and they did reverse it (referring to the first case, the San Salvador Centro municipality, as they were the first to be called out). But today, since there are many municipalities—some aren’t doing this, but they’re the exceptions—the majority are doing it. They’ve increased fees, they’ve increased licenses, they’ve increased permits.
Well, I saw that there was a municipality charging stores for putting up signs. For example, if a store puts up a sign saying ‘churritos for sale’ (giving an example), they were fined for putting up the (the sign… Bukele didn’t say the word ‘sign,’ but we’ve added it for clarity).
So, that’s illegal. Municipalities can’t act like a mafia; they must act as public servants. And I’m not saying this from the comfort of the presidency.
Because I’ve been a mayor of a small municipality, one of the smallest in the country and in the capital. So, no one needs to explain to me how it works—I know how it works, and there’s no need to extort the people to do the job well. That’s what I told the mayors.
Because, unfortunately, the Constitution grants autonomy to municipalities. There’s municipal autonomy, so I can’t give orders to the mayors.
But… what I told them was that the municipalities that don’t reverse all the increased charges and bring them back to what they were before they took office—meaning they must reverse the charges and leave everything as it was before they took office—have until Monday. They have all of Monday, but only until Monday.
If they don’t do it—and I don’t have the authority to order them—but I do have the power to report them to the Attorney General’s Office (referring to the Fiscalía General de la República), and I will report them for extortion.
Unless they return all fees, taxes, charges, licenses—everything—to how it was before they took office.
I imagine that, since there are 44 municipal councils, there will probably be some vivo (referring to someone trying to outsmart the system) who won’t do it. Well, that’s good, because we’ll use them as an example. We’ll use that municipal council as an example for all the others, because the time for extorting Salvadorans is over. We’re not going to remove one mafia (referring to gangs) just to let another take its place.
So, the municipalities that don’t comply… I don’t have the authority to order them, but those that don’t comply, I will report to the Attorney General’s Office… Here’s the Attorney General: ‘Hello, Mr. Attorney General.’ On Monday, I’ll bring him the complaint, and he’ll proceed as the law dictates. And we already know the penalties for extortion.
So, the municipalities that don’t comply already know—it can’t be, it just can’t be that we’re working to move our country forward… We spent two years convincing a German airbag company. They’re about to make the announcement; they’ve already finished the plant, they’ve built it—a beautiful, brand-new plant with well-paid jobs, and it will generate 1,000 jobs.
It took us two years to convince them, to provide the feasibility for them to build the plant, and we’ve created 1,000 jobs.
The municipalities have closed 15,000 businesses. At three jobs per business, that’s 45,000 jobs lost. We’d need 45 factories like the one we secured—which took us two years—to compensate for what the municipalities have destroyed.
So, it can’t be, it just can’t be. We’re going to keep working to attract foreign investment, we’re going to keep working to increase domestic investment, but we’re not going to allow what we build with our hands to be destroyed by others with their feet.
And if they thought they had impunity to do this, now they realize they don’t. And if someone still thinks, ‘No, I’m not going to do it’… Well, we’ll see each other on Tuesday (extra note: referring to those who don’t reverse these charges—by Tuesday, they’ll have to face the Attorney General’s Office after being reported for extortion).
If you want to hear it with your own ears, this specific part starts at minute 25:03. You can enable English subtitles.
