Investigation reveals Nayib Bukele paid $1 million for beach plot that encroaches on protected area

Last September, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele purchased a plot of beachfront property for $1 million, part of which encroaches on a protected natural area. The transaction, carried out through a company that the president founded with his wife, Gabriela Rodríguez, adds to a series of real estate acquisitions through which the politician and his family have significantly increased their real estate holdings in recent years.

The acquisition was revealed by a reporting investigation published this Thursday by the media alliance Redacción Regional, Dromómanos and MalaYerba. The 3.5-acre property is located on El Flor beach and, according to maps from two state institutions, part of it sits on a section of the Los Cóbanos Marine Park, which is home to the country’s main coral reef.

The Salvadoran Civil Code states that all beaches in the country are national property and “their use belongs to all inhabitants.” And it was precisely during Bukele’s first term (2019-2024), the investigation recalls, that the Legislative Assembly approved the General Law on Water Resources, which prohibits the privatization of water bodies, including “ocean beaches, lakes, and lagoons.”

The journalist Jaime Quintanilla visited the area near the property on March 20th. He describes it as “a coarse-grained sandbank, golden in color due to the minerals, shells and crushed reefs washed ashore by the waves, with an outlet to the sea flanked by rocky platforms of volcanic origin.” “The perimeter wall surrounding the president’s property also separates it from that of his immediate neighbors: a businessman and shrimp farmer of Chinese origin, whose land includes small food and beverage businesses, and a ranch with swimming pools and a basketball court belonging to the Marist Brothers,” he continues.

Quintanilla reports that the Salvadoran president recently visited the property, which does not yet have a house built on it. Other residents of this spot in the Sonsonate district, in the western part of the country, stated that when he visits, Bukele stays at a nearby private ranch. The Los Cóbanos Complex is not only a Protected Natural Area, but also a RAMSAR site, a designated wetland of international importance. The ecosystem includes sea turtles, migratory birds, and there are whale sighting tours promoted by the Ministries of Tourism and Environment.

Aerial maps of the area show that the land acquired by Bukele partly lies within the protected area, while the rest of the property is part of the buffer zone, indicating that, according to Salvadoran law, it is a segment of “fragile areas adjacent to and directly impacting the Protected Natural Areas, subject to the promotion of natural resource-friendly activities that support management objectives and minimize negative impacts both within and outside the area.”

No construction application for that property showed up in the public consultation system. In any case, building permits are subject to the decisions of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) and the municipal authorities of Sonsonate Centro. The ministry is headed by Fernando López, a childhood friend of Bukele’s, while the city council is controlled by Nuevas Ideas, the same party in power at the national level. Neither one of these two institutions responded to the reporter’s queries.

The contract of sale, dated September 23, 2024, bears the signatures of Bukele himself, as representative of the company Bu-Ro, S. A. de C. V., and of José Óscar Castro Araujo Sánchez, president and legal representative of the Agricultural Development Corporation (Corpodesa), who had purchased the El Flor plot on June 25, 2021, for $850,000.

“The land on El Flor beach is the third most expensive property that Bukele and his family have purchased in the last three years, behind the Hacienda Dorada farm, where the president’s coffee brand, Bean of Fire, is grown, and which he acquired for $1,640,000, and the building that Lagencia, S. A. de C. V., owned by his brothers Karim and Yusef Bukele, acquired for $1,300,000 in the historic center of San Salvador,” the investigation notes.

According to Ruth López, legal director of the Anti-Corruption and Justice department at the non-profit group Cristosal, although there are no legal obstacles to the president purchasing properties or carrying out other business activities, these activities pose a potential conflict of interest due to “the use of privileged information and the fact that all (environmental and building) permits are subject to the decisions of people who are formally and materially dependent on him.”

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