The Salvadoran government has moved to reassure citizens and the international community that recent reports of alleged kidnappings linked to phone calls with foreign area codes are not real and pose no physical danger. Authorities stressed that El Salvador is not experiencing kidnappings or the presence of drug cartels, but rather a wave of cross-border phone scams designed to generate fear and extort money.
President Nayib Bukele reaffirmed this position following a security cabinet press conference that addressed growing public concern. “In El Salvador there are no kidnappings, and there are no drug cartels. What has occurred are phone scams carried out from a prison in Colombia. There is no real risk. The solution is simple: do not pay,” Bukele wrote on X.
The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro, explained that investigators have identified more than 375 phone numbers using international country codes, primarily from Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala. With technical support from the United States, authorities traced the origin of the calls to the high-security prison of Cómbita, located in Colombia.
According to officials, the scam typically involves criminals posing as employers or potential clients who contact tradespeople and entrepreneurs. Victims are instructed to travel to a location, where callers then claim they are being watched or held captive and threaten to contact relatives unless a payment is made, despite no physical detention taking place.
Salvadoran authorities emphasized that the threat is psychological rather than physical. “There is no evidence of anyone being harmed or physically restrained. This is deception aimed at creating panic,” Villatoro said, urging the public to block suspicious international numbers, avoid sharing personal information, and report any attempted fraud to the appropriate institutions.