The Venezuelan municipality has not managed to become the institutional space to bring the State closer to the citizen and promote the legitimacy of participation and local development. Since its republican beginning, the municipality has been subject to the designs of the central power. The first hints to grant it autonomy were embodied in 1978 with the first municipal law in the country. But it was not until the approval of the decentralization reforms in 1989, when the figure of the mayor and his election were created. In this decentralizing period that culminated in 1998, the municipality showed significant progress in its autonomy and management capacity. However, from 1999 to date, the installation of an open process of reconcentration of power exercised by an authoritarian regime halted that progress. This document offers a list of the situation of the municipality from the start of decentralization in 1989 to the present.