It's a political division in this country. Each municipality has a mayor and an elected council who can vote on certain ordinances, budgets, etc. Our national government here is very centralized, so municipalities do not have a lot of power. They can vote on things like leash laws for pets, noise ordinances, etc. They also manage things like issuing drivers' licenses or business permits and running certain social programs.


Of course, some municipalities are more desirable to live in than others. The place where my friend insisted on looking for a house was generally very nice, which made it way out of her budget. Even the one small area that was kind of sketchy had high prices.

In Spanish we say municipalidad or sometimes comuna. But, comuna does not translate very well. People try to translate it as commune!