Nayib Bukele announced on his social network X account that these 5,000 foreign professionals will be able to enjoy the status of “fulal citizens.” Deputy Marcela Villatoro believes that the rights of national professionals should be put first.
El Salvador’s president, , offered 5,000 passports for “highly qualified” foreign professionals, and promised that those who decide to settle in El Salvador will have tax exemption for their transfer and status as “fulal citizens,” including the right to vote.
“We are offering 5,000 free passports (equivalent to $5 billion in our passport program) to scientists, engineers, doctors, artists and highly qualified philosophers from abroad,” Bukele said, adding that “this represents less than 0.1% of our population, so granting them the status of full citizens, including the right to vote, poses no problem.”
The Salvadoran president, who currently has a license from his office due to his participation in the last electoral campaign, in which he was re-elected, justified the need for this offer on the grounds that “despite the small number, his contributions will have a huge impact on our society and the future of our country.”
Bukele also offered interested foreign professionals that the Salvadoran government will facilitate their relocation to the country with a tax exemption: “guaranteeing 0% taxes and tariffs on the transfer of families and assets. This includes commercial value items such as equipment, software and intellectual property.”
“It should begin by improving the working conditions of Salvadorans”
The GRANIFIC PRENSA consulted on this measure with opposition deputies and obtained the opinion of Congresswoman Marcela Villatoro of the ARENA party, who said that the primary thing should be to put the rights of Salvadoran citizens who are already in the country.
“Our country has great potential in their own people, many are migrating to other countries because here they do not have the opportunities to develop, we know of several young Salvadorans who have studied at prestigious universities in the United States and Europe and simply do not find work, or if they find it with wages that do not go according to their studies. It should begin by improving the working conditions of Salvadorans, wage improvements according to studies, capacity and experience,” he said.
The opposition legislator said that before seeing abroad, the University of El Salvador (UES) should be promoted, to which the government owes enough money.
“What will happen to Salvadorans who haven’t had these opportunities and bring people from other countries? Are we going to force them or force them to migrate because there is more chance for someone coming from another country because they have even rights prerogatives? All this has to be seen, studied and above all put the rights of nationals first,” he said.
This article has been translated from the original which first appeared in La Prensa Grafica