14 Richest Families In El Salvador Direct
Estimated Net Worth: $600 Million Source of Wealth: Pharmaceuticals, Medical Distribution.
The Daboubs control the pharmaceutical supply chain. Through Farmacias San Nicolas and distribution alliances with international giants (Pfizer, Bayer, Roche), they control the flow of medicine into every hospital and pharmacy. During the pandemic, they became exponentially wealthier due to vaccine distribution logistics.
The Krietes are the quintessential "new money" (post-1970s) that eclipsed old coffee families. They founded Grupo TACA (now Avianca), which made them regional airline moguls. After selling their stake in Avianca, they pivoted to Banco Cuscatlán (sold to Citigroup) and later founded BAC Credomatic (sold to Grupo Aval). Today, they own Aeroman (the largest aircraft maintenance facility in Latin America) and vast insurance holdings. Estimated family trust: $1.5 billion.
Estimated Net Worth: $250 Million Source of Wealth: Textiles, Apparel Manufacturing.
Last but not least, the Flores family owns the largest textile "maquila" operations exporting to the US under DR-CAFTA. They manufacture jeans and t-shirts for Walmart, Target, and GAP. While their margins are thin, their volume is massive. They employ thousands of workers, making them a politically connected family when labor disputes arise. 14 richest families in el salvador
The Sol Millets are the private bankers to the oligarchy. They own Grupo Financiero Multi Inversiones (GFMI) , a bank that specializes in offshore accounts for wealthy Salvadorans hiding assets from taxation. They have offices in Panama and the Caymans. Their fortune is liquid and difficult to trace, but leaked documents (Pandora Papers) revealed they manage over $2 billion in third-party assets, with their personal cut estimated at $250–350 million.
The 14 richest families in El Salvador share a common trait: discretion. You will not see them on reality TV or Instagram. They live in gated communities in Santa Elena, attend private schools (Escuela Americana or Liceo Francés), and intermarry with Guatemalan or Costa Rican elites.
For the average Salvadoran, these names represent the establishment—the "oligarchy" that President Bukele has vowed to dismantle. Yet, even with Bukele’s supermajority in Congress, these families remain standing. Their wealth is not in dollars; it is in infrastructure (roads, ports, malls) and rights (franchises, licenses, land titles).
Whether El Salvador’s Bitcoin City and tech future will break this monopoly or simply create a 15th family of crypto-rich oligarchs remains the central economic question of the next decade. Estimated Net Worth: $600 Million Source of Wealth:
Sources: Pandora Papers, ECLAC reports, El Faro investigative journalism, and Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce registries.
The rain in San Salvador falls hard enough to wash away the dust, but never the history. From the terraces of the multi-million dollar penthouses in the Escalón district, the city looks like a sprawling circuit board of lights, pulsing with the energy of a country constantly reinventing itself.
But if you look closely at the board of directors for the banks, the coffee exporters, the pharmaceutical empires, and the new booming shopping malls, the names remain stubbornly consistent.
They are the Catorce—the Fourteen. It is not an official club, no plaque hangs on a wall, but in the social pages of El Diario de Hoy and the private ledgers of the banks, they are the dynasty that holds the levers of El Salvador. The Sol Millets are the private bankers to the oligarchy
Date: April 24, 2026
Scope: Private conglomerates, banking, agro-industry, mass media, and real estate.
It is crucial to note that President Nayib Bukele, despite his popularity, is not part of this "14 families" list. His wealth is modest compared to the Dueñas or Kriete clans. In fact, much of Bukele’s political appeal came from railing against these families' tax evasion and political manipulation.
However, the concentration of wealth remains staggering. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the top 1% of the population in El Salvador (which includes these 14 families) owns approximately 45% of the country's wealth, while the bottom 50% owns less than 5%.