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Nayib Bukele
A vertical upper-body portrait of Nayib Bukele facing the camera, wearing a business suit and a presidential sash
Official portrait, 2019
43rd President of El Salvador
Assumed office
1 June 2019 [a]
Vice President Félix Ulloa
Preceded by Salvador Sánchez Cerén
13th Mayor of San Salvador
In office
1 May 2015 – 30 April 2018
Preceded by Norman Quijano
Succeeded by Ernesto Muyshondt
Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán
In office
1 May 2012 – 30 April 2015
Preceded byÁlvaro Rodríguez
Succeeded by Michelle Sol
Personal details
Born
Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez

(1981-07-24) 24 July 1981 (age 42)
San Salvador, El Salvador
Political party Nuevas Ideas (since 2017)
Other political
affiliations
Spouse
( m. 2014)
Children2
Parent
Education Central American University (no degree)
OccupationPolitician, businessman
Cabinet Cabinet of Nayib Bukele
Signature A graphic of Nayib Bukele's signature

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (Spanish pronunciation: [naˈʝiβ buˈkele]; born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who is the 43rd president of El Salvador, serving since 1 June 2019. He is the first Salvadoran president since 1984 who was not elected as a candidate of one of the country's two major political parties: the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), of which Bukele was formerly a member.

Beginning in 1999, Bukele worked at an advertising company owned by his father and also established his own advertising company. Both his and his father's companies advertised election campaigns for the FMLN. In 2011, Bukele announced that he would enter politics, and in 2012, he officially became a member of the FMLN. That year, he was elected as the mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán and served until 2015. That same year, Bukele was elected as the mayor of San Salvador and served until 2018. In 2017, Bukele was ousted from the FMLN, and shortly afterwards, he founded the Nuevas Ideas political party with which he sought to pursue a presidential campaign in 2019. After the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) refused to register his party, Bukele ran for president with the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) and won with 53 percent of the vote.

Murders decreased by 50% during his first year in office, which he attributed to his deployment of thousands of police and soldiers to gang strongholds and an increase in prison security. Bukele has been accused of governing in an authoritarian manner. [2] [3] His government was accused of secretly negotiating with MS-13 to reduce murders. [4] [5] After over 80 people were killed by criminals during a weekend in March 2022, Bukele's government arrested over 78,000 people with alleged gang affiliations in an ongoing nationwide crackdown. [6]

Bukele declared bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador in 2021. [7] His administration has created policies to promote bitcoin usage such as developing the Chivo wallet, expanding bitcoin ATMs, and began plans to build a Bitcoin City powered by geothermal energy from El Salvador's volcanoes. [8] His decision to run in the 2024 Salvadoran general election led to criticism that immediate presidential re-election violated the constitution. [9] [10] Bukele won re-election on 4 February 2024, with 85% of the vote.

Early life

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was born on 24 July 1981 in San Salvador, El Salvador. [11] His father was Armando Bukele Kattán, a businessman and industrial chemist, [12] [13] and his mother is Olga Marina Ortez; Bukele's father died in 2015. [14] Bukele was the couple's first child. He has three younger brothers: Karim, Yusef, and Ibrajim. He also has four half-sisters and two half-brothers from his father's side of the family. [11] [15] Bukele's father converted to Islam from Christianity in the 1980s, became an imam, and founded four mosques in El Salvador; [13] Bukele's mother is a Roman Catholic. [14] Bukele's paternal grandparents were Palestinian Christians who immigrated to El Salvador from Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the 1921; Bukele's paternal grandfather was a Greek Orthodox and his maternal grandmother was a Roman Catholic. [12]

Bukele completed his secondary education from the Escuela Panamericana in 1999 at the age of 18. He enrolled at the Central American University in San Salvador to study judicial sciences with aspirations to become a lawyer, [13] [14] but he dropped out to work for the Nölck advertising agency, one of his father's businesses. [16] Nölck campaigned for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a left-wing Salvadoran political party. [17] Bukele owned Yamaha Motors El Salvador, a company that sells and distributes Yamaha products in El Salvador. [18] In 1999, Bukele founded Obermet, S.A. de C.V. (also known as 4am Saatchi & Saatchi El Salvador), a marketing company. He served as its director and president of until 2012. [16] [19] This company ran political advertising for the FMLN presidential campaigns of Schafik Hándal in 2004 and Mauricio Funes in 2009. [14] [20]: 239  Bukele described himself as a "businessman with a great future" ("empresario con gran futuro"). [17]

Early political career

Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán

In 2011, Bukele announced that he would enter politics as a member of the FMLN. [14] He stated that his reason for doing so was to get out of "his comfort zone" ("su zona de confort") as a businessman. [17] Bukele officially joined the FMLN in 2012 [21] and campaigned to be elected as the mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a municipality in the department of La Libertad which is a part of the San Salvador metropolitan area. Bukele's campaign was supported by the Democratic Change political party. [14] On 11 March 2012, Bukele was elected as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán with 51.67 percent of the vote. He defeated Tomás Rodríguez of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), who was his primary challenger. [22] Bukele took office on 1 May 2012 [14] becoming the country's youngest mayor. [17]

As mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, Bukele created a scholarship program for youths in the municipality; [14] he donated his salary of US$2,000 to fund the program. [18] On 27 August 2014, Bukele launched Sphere PM, a project which launched a high-altitude balloon to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,000 m) and took pictures of various parts of El Salvador. [23] Bukele stated that the goal of Sphere PM was to promote education in science and technology in order to prevent the municipality's youth from turning to crime. [24] On 31 November 2014, Bukele spoke at the United Nations headquarters to discuss the projects he had undertaken up to that point as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán as a part of World Cities Day. [25] On 21 January 2015, Bukele inaugurated a new boulevard which connected Nuevo Cuscatlán with Huizúcar and Antiguo Cuscatlán; its construction cost US$1.7 million. [26] Bukele performed much of his works as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán with funding from ALBA Petróleos, an association owned by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. [20]: 239 

Mayor of San Salvador

In August 2014, Bukele announced that he would seek election as mayor of San Salvador in the upcoming 2015 elections. [14] His candidacy was confirmed by FMLN Secretary-General Medardo González on 19 August 2014. [27] Bukele delegated administration of Nuevo Cuscatlán to Michelle Sol, a council member, on 10 February 2015 in order to focus on his electoral campaign. [28] During Bukele's electoral campaign, which was supported by the Salvadoran Progressive Party [ es], FMLN party leadership called him the party's "crown jewel" ("joya de la corona"). Bukele's campaign utilized catchphrases such as "we have to change history" ("tenemos que cambiar la historia") and "together we will come out ahead" ("juntos saldremos adelante") to rally support among young voters. Bukele's primary opponent was Edwin Zamora, a businessman and a then-incumbent deputy of the Legislative Assembly from ARENA. Bukele led Zamora in opinion polls prior to the municipal election. [17] On 1 March 2015, Bukele defeated Zamora with 50.38 percent of the vote; he assumed office on 1 May 2015. [14] Upon assuming office, Bukele appointed one of his cousins, Hassan, and one of his half-brothers, Yamil, in administrative positions on the San Salvador municipal council. These appointments were criticized by politicians from both ARENA and the FMLN. [29]

Nayib Bukele shaking hands with children dressed in bee costumes
Bukele at the opening of the La Colmenita children's theater
A photograph of the mayors of several Ibero-American capital cities
Bukele at the XVIII summit of the Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities

As mayor, Bukele began his "reordering" ("reordenamiento") plan to revitalize the city's historic downtown and combat crime in the city. [30] On the day Bukele assumed office, he reverted the names of two streets in San Salvador: Calle Mayor Roberto D'Aubuisson and Boulevard Coronel José Arturo Castellanos. Bukele renamed the former to Calle San Antonio Abad and the latter to Boulevard Venezuela, both names which were changed by Bukele's predecessor as mayor, Norman Quijano. Zamora, who had become a member of San Salvador's municipal council, explained that the names were reverted to due supposed flaws in the initial renaming process. [31] Zamora assured that another street would be named in honor of Castellanos, who provided fake Salvadoran passports to 40,000 Central European Jews to help them escape the Holocaust during World War II; [29] Bukele eventually did inaugurate the renaming of 89 Avenida Norte to honor Castellanos in June 2016. [32]

In December 2016, Bukele inaugurated the Cuscatlán Market to incentivize street vendors to relocate their businesses. [33] Despite the market's inauguration, many vendors expressed their refusal to relocate [30] and some accused him of negotiating with gangs to organize its construction as it was located in gang-controlled territory. [14] In January 2016, Bukele initiated his "San Salvador 100% Illuminated" campaign to "have a light on every corner of San Salvador" in an effort to combat crime in the city; the campaign was completed by May 2016. [30] Bukele also installed video surveillance cameras in parts of San Salvador which were severely affected by crime. [14] In October 2017, Bukele inaugurated the renovated Gerardo Barrios Plaza in historic downtown. [34] In April 2018, he inaugurated the new Lineal Plaza, also in historic downtown. [35]

Like in Nuevo Cuscatlán, Bukele created a scholarship program—known as the Dalton Project—for youths in San Salvador to prevent them from joining gangs. [14] He donated his salary to fund the scholarship program. [16] He also created the My New School project to modernize San Salvador's primary schools. [14] In November 2015, Bukele signed an agreement with the Spanish National League of Professional Football to promote sports among San Salvador's youth. [36]

In May 2015, Bukele signed an act with José Blandón, the mayor of Panama City, to establish a sister city relationship between San Salvador and Panama City. [37] In September 2016, Bukele visited Washington, D.C. and met with Muriel Bowser, the city's mayor, to discuss the implementation of city development projects. During his visit, he was given the keys to the city of Gaithersburg, Maryland and 11 September was designated as the "Day of Mayor Nayib Bukele" ("Día del alcalde Nayib Bukele"). [38] In February 2017, Bukele visited Taipei, Taiwan and met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to "enhance" the sister city relationship between San Salvador and Taipei. [39] In February 2018, Bukele attended the 32nd International Mayors Conference in Jerusalem. [12] While in Jerusalem, Bukele prayed at the Western Wall. [40]

"Troll Center" case

In January 2016, the El Diario de Hoy and La Prensa Gráfica newspapers reported that the Búnker digital programming company had created mirror sites of the two newspapers in June 2015 and posted false information in an attempt to damage both newspapers' reputations. The newspapers described the incident as a cyberattack. In a subsequent investigation conducted by the office of the attorney general (FGR), Bukele allegedly instructed a Twitter user to create the mirror sites. Bukele denied all involvement with the creation of the mirror sites. [41] [42] The incident became known as the "Troll Center" case. [41] Five individuals were charged in relation to the Troll Center case, but the charges were dropped in December 2017. [43]

On 4 July 2017, Bukele sued La Prensa Gráfica for US$6 million alleging that the newspaper had defamed and slandered him in the newspaper's reporting of the 2015 cyberattacks against it by "falsely" ("falsamente") connecting him to the Troll Center case and that the reporting "damaged [Bukele's] image" ("dañó la imagen del señor alcalde"). Later that month, a court dismissed Bukele's lawsuit, and three further courts all rejected subsequent appeals made by Bukele. [44] In December 2018, the FGR stated that it had reviewed information which supposedly linked Bukele's cell phone to the June 2015 cyberattacks. [45]

Expulsion from the FMLN

A color photograph of Salvador Sánchez Cerén and Nayib Bukele shaking hands
Then-Mayor Bukele with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén in May 2015

Bukele's relationship with the FMLN began to deteriorate after he became mayor of San Salvador. [46] Bukele clashed with other party members on Twitter [14] and frequently resisted FMLN party leadership. [20]: 239  He was also a strong critic of Salvador Sánchez Cerén, the FMLN president of El Salvador who was elected in 2014. [46] In 2015, Bukele openly threatened to leave the party if the government–led by the FMLN at the time—reappointed Luis Martínez as the country's attorney general, whom he described as "a gangster, very corrupt, [and] the worst of the worst". The FMLN relented and replaced Martínez, however, Bukele later admitted that his threat to leave the party "was a bluff". [30]

In September 2017, Xóchitl Marchelli, a municipal syndicate of San Salvador from the FMLN, alleged that Bukele had thrown an apple at her, supposedly calling her a "damn traitor" ("maldita traidora") and a "witch" ("bruja") in the process. [47] Bukele did not attend a party ethics tribunal hearing on 7 October 2017 FMLN Ethics Tribunal claiming that the ethics tribunal was biased in favor of Marchelli. [48] On 10 October 2017, Bukele was expelled from the FMLN after the ethics tribunal determined that he had engaged in "defamatory acts" ("actos difamatorios" against the party, showed "disrespect" ("irrespeto") towards the women's rights and the party's statutes, and expressed "disqualifying comments" ("comentarios descalificadores") towards party members. [49] Marchelli sued Bukele through the Specialized Investigative Court regarding the incident, but sent a letter to the court in October 2018 stating that she would no longer pursue the matter citing health reasons. [50] Regardless of Marchelli's withdrawal, the FGR proceeded with the case. On 29 March 2019, the Specialized Sentencing Court acquitted Bukele. [51]

In the 2018 legislative and municipal elections, in which Bukele was favored to win re-election before being expelled from the FMLN, [21] the FMLN suffered its worst electoral performance since the 1994 election (the first election the party ever participated in). The FMLN lost 6 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 16 municipalities. [52] During the election, Bukele called on his supporters nationwide to spoil their vote or stay home on election day rather than support the FMLN. [53] In February 2019, FMLN presidential communications secretary Roberto Lorenzana admitted that Bukele's expulsion from the party was a mistake and resulted in the party losing votes. [54]

2019 presidential election

Bukele's popularity as mayor of San Salvador led some journalists to believe that Bukele would run for president during the 2019 election, [20]: 239  however, Bukele denied that he would. [30] Bukele eventually expressed interest in running for president with the FMLN, however, the FMLN resisted and did not even want to consider him as the party's vice presidential nominee. After Bukele was expelled from the FMLN, he utilized the situation to claim on social media that the party had purged him. [20]: 240–241  He portrayed himself as an independent politician who rejected the country's political system. [21]

On 15 October 2017, Bukele officially announced his intention to run for president in 2019 and that he would form a new political movement. [55] On 25 October 2017, he established the Nuevas Ideas political party, announcing the establishment on social media. He stated that Nuevas Ideas would seek to remove ARENA and the FMLN from their established power. [56] Throughout his presidential campaign, Bukele and a network of YouTubers, bloggers, and internet trolls attacked both ARENA and the FMLN seeking to discredit them. [20]: 242  Bukele sought to associate the two parties with the governments of previous presidents which were marred with corruption scandals. In the process, he utilized slogans such as "there's enough money when nobody steals" and "return what was stolen". [46] Among Bukele's campaign promises included the creation of an international commission to combat corruption, the development of a trans-national railroad and a new airport, create job opportunities for Salvadorans, and reduce crime rates. [57] [58]

Nayib Bukele and Gabriela Rodríguez posing for press photographers at a campaign rally
Bukele on election day in 2019

In order for Bukele to run for president with Nuevas Ideas, he had to get the party registered with the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE). [59] Although Nuevas Ideas surpassed the number of signatures required to register the party, [60] Bukele believed that the TSE would not register the party in time before the 29 July 2018 deadline to acquire a presidential nomination with a political party. Prior to the deadline, Bukele registered as a member of Democratic Change and sought the party's presidential nomination, however, the TSE canceled the party's registration four days before the deadline citing the fact that Democratic Change failed to receive more than 50,000 votes during the 2015 legislative elections. On 29 July 2018, Bukele registered with the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA)—a right-wing political party—and acquired the party's presidential nomination. Bukele selected Félix Ulloa, a lawyer, as his vice presidential pick. [14] [61]

Bukele used social media extensively throughout his campaign such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to communicate with his supporters. [62] He did not attend either of the two presidential debates held in December 2018 and January 2019, respectively, despite stating that he would attend. He explained that he did not attend by claiming that the rules of the debates were not explained to him. [63] [64] Bukele was the election's frontrunner, [62] leading virtually every poll by substantial margins. His four opponents were ARENA's [b] Carlos Calleja, a businessman who owned the Super Selectos supermarket chain, the FMLN's Hugo Martínez, a former minister of foreign affairs, and Vamos' Josué Alvarado, a businessman. [57] [66] On 3 February 2019, the date of the election, Bukele defeated Calleja, Martínez, and Alvarado with 53.10 percent of the vote. Bukele was the first president candidate to be elected since José Napoleón Duarte (1984–1989) who was not a member of either ARENA or the FMLN. [62] [67]

Presidency

Nayib Bukele standing at a podium, wearing the Salvadoran presidential sash, and speaking to a crowd
Bukele speaking at his inauguration.

Bukele was inaugurated as president of El Salvador on 1 June 2019 in front of a crowd of supporters. Bukele held his inauguration ceremony at the National Palace due to its location in the Gerardo Barrios Plaza which he renovated as mayor of San Salvador. He held the ceremony here instead of in the Blue Room (meeting room) of the Legislative Assembly in an effort to portray himself as focusing his presidency towards the country's population. Bukele's supporters booed and insulted the deputies of the Legislative Assembly as they were introduced. [20]: 244  Bukele announced a cabinet of sixteen people composed of eight men and eight women. [68]

Homicide rate and crime

During Bukele's presidential campaign, he promised to bring an end to gang violence in El Salvador. [58] Prior to his presidency, El Salvador was considered to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to gang violence. [69] Most of El Salvador's violent crimes were committed by MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. Although both gangs are the country's largest gangs, both originated in Los Angeles in the United States; the former was formed in the 1980s by Salvadoran refugees fleeing the country's civil war, while the latter was formed in the 1960s by Mexican immigrants. Much of the gang violence stemmed from factors such as income inequality, poverty, poor education standards, a lack of job opportunities, and high urbanization rates. [70]: 2–3 

El Salvador's homicide rate peaked at 107 homicides per 100,000 people in 2015. [71] By 2019, the El Salvador's homicide rate had decreased to 38 homicides per 100,000 people, however, it was still one of the world's highest homicide rates. [72] [73] Gangs exerted total control over some parts of El Salvador [20]: 237  and demanded business owners pay them an extortion tax, referred to as renta, under threat of violence. [30] In early-2019, there were an estimated 67,000 gang members in El Salvador. [58]

Territorial Control Plan

On 19 June 2019, Bukele announced that his government would implement a seven-phase security plan known as the Territorial Control Plan which sought to disrupt gang finances. [74] The Territorial Control Plan began that night at midnight. [75] Phase one, known as "preparation", called for members of the country's security forces—the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES) and the National Civil Police (PNC)—to be stationed in 12 of the country's 262 municipalities at locations where gangs were known to collect extortion taxes. [76] The government also implemented a temporary state of emergency in the country's 28 prisons, putting them on lockdown and revoking visiting rights. [77]

As a result of his Territorial Control Plan[ according to whom?], El Salvador's homicide rate fell from 52 homicides per 100,000 people in 2018, the highest in the world at the time, [78] to 36 homicides per 100,000 people in 2019. [79] [80] In 2020, the homicide rate fell to 19.7 homicides per 100,000 people, and by 2021, it decreased again to 17.6 homicides per 100,000 people. [81] [82] InSight Crime referred the homicide rate of 2021 as "unimaginable", [82] as, only six years prior in 2015, the homicide rate was 103 homicides per 100,000 people. [83] In January 2023, Minister of Defense René Merino Monroy announced that the government registered 496 homicides in 2022, a 56.8 percent decrease from 1,147 homicides in 2021. He attributed the decrease in homicides on the gang crackdown, [84] but official homicide figures excluded bodies found in clandestine mass graves, potentially skewing the numbers. The number of missing persons, which has risen steadily since 2018 and throughout his presidency, exceeds the number of homicides, further putting the amount of reduction of murders into question. [85] [86] On the other hand, crime rates in El Salvador were already decreasing before his presidency, with the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants falling from 103 in 2015 to 52 in 2018. [87]

Alleged gang negotiations

A screenshot of video surveillance footage showing various men waring face masks inside a prison hallway
Video surveillance inside a prison supposedly depicting Osiris Luna (labeled 1), the director of prisons, during alleged negotiations with gangs.

In September 2020, the website El Faro accused Bukele of having secretly negotiated a deal with MS-13 which stipulated the government granting the gang more flexible prison conditions for its members and other promises, in exchange for the gang pledging to reduce the number of murders in the country and to support Bukele's political party during the upcoming 2021 elections, similar to the gang truce formulated by President Mauricio Funes from 2012 to 2014 with MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. [5] [88] Bukele denied the allegations and shared photos of the prisons from that April, which showed gang members rounded up in cramped conditions. [89] [90] Bukele subsequently launched an investigation into El Faro on suspicions of money laundering. [91]

On 8 December 2021, the United States Department of the Treasury accused Bukele of secretly negotiating with Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street Gang to lower murder rates in the country. [92] [93] [94] The department sanctioned Osiris Luna Meza, Vice Minister of Justice and Public Security, and Carlos Marroquín Chica, chairman of its Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit, alleging that they repeatedly negotiated with the gangs. [94] Bukele rejected the accusations, stating that the United States sought "absolute submission" from El Salvador instead of cooperation. [94]

Gang crackdown

On 26 March 2022, El Salvador recorded 62 murders committed in a single day, the deadliest day in Salvadoran history in the 30 years since the end of the civil war. [95] Most of the murders were committed by MS-13 and 18th Street Gang. [96] The following day, the Legislative Assembly voted to enact article 29 of the Salvadoran constitution, [97] declaring a 30-day state of emergency, referred to as the "Régimen de Excepción" ("State of Exception"), [98] which suspended some constitutional civil liberties and mobilized the military to neighborhoods controlled by the country's criminal gangs. [95] According to the national police, over 75,100 alleged gang members, which Bukele and the police refer to as " terrorists", were arrested as of 27 March 2024. [99] As of February 2024, a total of 235 people have died while in custody. [100]

Soldiers in camouflage uniform, armed with rifles, and standing on a sidewalk in Soyapango
Soldiers standing on a sidewalk in Soyapango during the blockade of that city in December 2022
Nayib Bukele surrounded by four government officials while touring through a prison cell block, with prison guards in riot gear are standing in formation in front of cell entrances
Bukele and some of his government officials touring a cell block in the Terrorism Confinement Center

In a speech to 1,450 newly trained soldiers, Bukele threatened to not allow the incarcerated gang members to eat if gang members outside of prison continued to commit criminal acts. In the same speech, Bukele criticized the international community, specifically human rights non-governmental organizations, for "not saying anything when these criminals killed tens of Salvadoran men and women, but they leaped at attention when we began to arrest them saying that we are violating their rights", adding that the NGOs are "against human rights". He also claimed that the NGOs "need us [El Salvador] to continue to have problems, so that they can continue to make their fat salaries". [101] Bukele also warned Salvadoran parents to keep their children away from involvement with gangs as it would lead to "prison or death". [102]

On 23 April 2022, Bukele expressed his desire to extend the state of emergency for 30 more days, stating that he met with the Council of Ministers to petition the Legislative Assembly to vote for such an extension. [103] The following day, 67 of the 84 deputies of the Legislative Assembly voted in favor of extending the state of emergency by 30 more days. [104] [105] In total, the Legislative Assembly has extended the state of emergency by 30 days seventeen times. [106] According to a survey conducted by CIESCA in late-May 2022, 90.13 percent of Salvadorans approved of the state of emergency and the measures taken by the government against the gangs, while only 7.10 percent did not approve. [107]

Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), called the actions of the police and army as resorting to an "unnecessary and excessive use of force". [108] In early-May 2022, Human Rights Watch claimed that there was "mounting evidence" and "credible allegations" that Salvadoran authorities were committing human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and deaths in police custody, throughout the state of emergency. [109] In early June 2022, Amnesty International stated that the government has committed "massive human rights violations", including torture, against those incarcerated, [110] and stating that 2 percent of the country's population have been incarcerated and that there have been 18 deaths in custody. [111] Groups which advocate for freedom of the press were "alarmed" when the Legislative Assembly authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years to news media which spreads messages from the gangs. [112]

On 28 June 2022, three police officers of the National Civil Police were killed by MS-13 gang members in a shootout in Santa Ana. [113] Bukele described the shootout as an " ambush" against the police, and he referred to the three killed officers as heroes. In a news conference, Bukele swore to intensify the gang crackdown, stating, "What is coming to [gang members] is much greater, and they are going to pay dearly for having taken the lives of these three [police officers]". In response to foreign criticism regarding the crackdown, Bukele stated "Let them complain all they want [...] We are going to defend our people and we are going to ensure that the lives of these agents were not lost in vain". [114] Similarly, on 13 July 2022, 10 gang members attacked a group of soldiers in Nueva Concepción, one of whom was mortally wounded and died in a military hospital. Bukele also described the incident as an "ambush" and ordered the national flag to be hoisted at half-mast for three days. [115] [116]

In July 2022, Bukele announced the construction of a new prison which will be able to house 40,000 prisoners, making it one of the largest prisons in the world. [117] The prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) and located in Tecoluca, was opened on 31 January 2023. Bukele, together with his Security Cabinet, presented the prison with punishment cells, factories for workshops, access control with a full body scanner and a scanner for packages. The prison is staffed by 250 police officers, 600 soldiers, and covers 410 acres of land. [118]

On 3 November 2022, Osiris Luna Meza, the vice minister of justice, announced that the government would begin destroying gravestones belonging to members of gangs to prevent them from becoming "shrines", stating "terrorists will no longer be able to 'glorify' the memory of dead criminals". Despite the destruction of the gravestones, the government stated that the bodies would remain intact and not be disturbed. [119] Bukele compared the removal of the tombstones of gang members to denazification in Allied-occupied Germany, stating that the government policy is only aimed at gravestones that explicitly mention gang affiliation. [120]

As a result of his gang-crackdown, analysts have noted the rise of a cult of personality around him across Latin America, with political scientist Steven Levitsky comparing his populist governance and public image to that of Hugo Chávez. [121]

Political crises

Both the 2020 crisis (top) and 2021 crisis (bottom) have been referred to as "El Bukelazo". [122]

In February 2020, Bukele wanted to secure a 109 million dollar loan from the United States to go to increase funding for the Territorial Control Plan. [123] [124] His plan was opposed by the ARENA and the FMLN, citing that his previous policies regarding law enforcement had increased militarization of the National Civil Police [125] Bukele rallied supporters to call upon the opposition to approve the loan, and on 6 February 2020, Bukele invoked article 167 of the Constitution of El Salvador, calling on the Council of Ministers to convene in the Legislative Assembly on 9 February 2020. [126] [127] When the meeting was supposed to occur, Bukele ordered soldiers into the Legislative Assembly to intimidate legislators to approve the loan. [128] [129] [130] The incident, known in El Salvador as 9F, [131] was condemned by the opposition as an attempted self-coup and the Supreme Court of Justice prohibited Bukele from exercising powers not granted in the constitution. [132] [133]

Bukele's Nuevas Ideas won a majority of the seats in the Legislative Assembly in the 2021 legislative elections, and on 1 May 2021, Nuevas Ideas made a coalition with three other political parties, gaining control of two thirds of the legislature. [3] Later the same day, the Legislative Assembly voted to remove the five justices of the Supreme Court's constitutional court and Raúl Melara, El Salvador's attorney general. [134] The event has been condemned as a self-coup by opposition politicians, accusing Bukele and Nuevas Ideas of committing a power grab. [134] [135] [136] The incident was condemned by the United States and has been cited as an instance of democratic backsliding. [137] [138] [139] Melara was investigating 17 cases of alleged corruption in acquisitions during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Bukele administration. [140]

COVID-19 pandemic

The first case of COVID-19 in El Salvador was confirmed on 19 March 2020. As of 5 January 2023, El Salvador had 201,785 confirmed cases and 4,230 deaths, and as of 16 December 2022, 11,343,183 doses of the vaccine had been administered. [141]

Entrance of Hospital El Salvador

On 21 March 2020, Bukele instated a nationwide lockdown in an effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic which was to last 30 days. [142] During the lockdown, 4,236 people were arrested by the National Civil Police for violating the lockdown order. [142] Human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, have criticized the arrests, citing arbitrary arrests and police abuses. [142] Human Rights Watch also criticized the living conditions of prisoners in El Salvador following Bukele's authorization of the "use of lethal force" by the National Civil Police and the government's release of prisoners being lined up in San Salvador, referring to the living conditions as being "inhumane" and being critical of the move, especially as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic. [89] On 27 May 2020, the United States donated 250 ventilators to El Salvador. [143] During the press conference where Bukele received the ventilators, he stated that he took hydroxychloroquine. [143] On 22 June 2020, Bukele inaugurated the Hospital El Salvador, the largest hospital in Latin America used exclusively for treating cases of COVID-19, having a capacity of 400 beds, 105 intensive care units, 295 intermediate care units, and 240 doctors. [144]

In January 2021, Transparency International cited both El Salvador and Colombia as examples of "an explosion of irregularities and corruption". Transparency International cited the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index report as its basis. [145] Twenty of Bukele's government institutions were under investigation by the attorney general on suspicions of corruption relating to the pandemic; however, the investigations were halted after the attorney general was removed by the Legislative Assembly, dominated by the Nuevas Ideas political party, on 1 May 2021. [134] [146]

On 13 May 2021, Bukele donated 34,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to several towns and villages in Honduras after pleas from local mayors for vaccines. [147] At the time, El Salvador had received 1.9 million doses, while Honduras had only received 59,000. [147] Bukele donated 44,000 more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Honduras on 19 June 2021 after Mexico had donated 154,100 doses to Honduras the day prior. [148] [149]

Adoption of bitcoin

A bitcoin ATM in El Zonte

On 5 June 2021, Bukele announced that he planned to introduce a bill to the Legislative Assembly which would make El Salvador the first nation to make bitcoin legal tender. [150] The Legislative Assembly approved the bill on 8 June 2021, and it was scheduled to come into effect on 7 September 2021. [151] [152] On 17 June 2021, the World Bank rejected a request from El Salvador to assist with the implementation of bitcoin as legal tender, citing concerns over transparency and the environmental effects of bitcoin mining. [153] On 24 June 2021, Athena Bitcoin stated that it intended to invest one million dollars into installing 1,500 cryptocurrency ATMs which would allow users to be able to exchange U.S. Dollars for bitcoin, and vice versa. [152]

On 6 September 2021, Bukele announced that the Salvadoran government had bought its first 400 bitcoins. [154] The following day, the Bitcoin Law came into effect, making bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, which became the first country to make the digital currency legal tender. [155] The same day, bitcoin crashed, falling from $52,000 per bitcoin to under $43,000, reaching, at one point in the trading, "its lowest in nearly a month". [156] Meanwhile, platforms such as Apple and Huawei weren't offering the Salvadoran government-backed digital wallet, named "Chivo", [157] while internet servers were forced to move offline after they were overwhelmed with user registrations. [156] Some "one thousand protesters" took to the streets of San Salvador to express their opposition to the country's adoption of bitcoin. [156] [158]

In November 2021, Bukele announced that he planned to build Bitcoin City in the southeastern region of La Unión at the base of the Conchagua volcano, which would use geothermal energy to power bitcoin mining. [159]

By January 2022, the price of bitcoin had fallen by 45 percent since November, costing the national treasury up to $22 million in reserves. El Salvador bonds declined in value. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stalled its talks with the government on a loan deal, urging El Salvador to drop bitcoin as legal tender due to concerns over its volatility and diminished transparency. [160] [161] Economist Steve Hanke said, "El Salvador now has the most distressed sovereign debt in the world, and it's because of the bitcoin folly. The markets think that Bukele's gone mad, and he has." [162] As of June 2022, the Salvadoran government had lost $56 million in bitcoin, [163] and economists stated that the country is likely going to default on its debt. [164]

On 27 July 2022, Bukele announced that the Salvadoran government would buy back US$560 million in debt bonds to "ease worries" that the country would default on its debt. [165]

As of December 2023, the country's Bitcoin investments officially broke even, [166] and returned over 50% in profits as of March 2024. [167]

Foreign policy

Between 5 June 2019 and 22 December 2019, Bukele served as the president pro tempore of the Central American Integration System (SICA). [168] [169] [170] Bukele is a proponent of Central American reunification. [171] [172]

Bukele considers Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to be dictators. [173] Bukele and the Legislative Assembly denounced the results of the 2021 Nicaraguan general election, which have widely been seen by several governments as fraudulent. [174] However, from 2022 onwards, Bukele's government abstained from resolutions critical of Nicaragua and Guatemala at the OAS, citing non-interference. [175]

Bukele refused to recognize the presidency of Manuel Merino in Peru in November 2020, describing his government as "putschist". [176]

On 15 June 2019, Bukele withdrew El Salvador's recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/ Polisario Front (de facto government of part of the disputed territory of Western Sahara) in favor of improved relations with Morocco. [177]

In 2022, Bukele's government abstained from votes on resolutions condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [178]

Relations with the United States

Nayib Bukele and Donald Trump sitting down and shaking hands
Bukele with U.S. President Donald Trump in September 2019

Bukele met with U.S. President Donald Trump on 26 September 2019 in Washington, D.C., where he called on Trump to promote legal migration in an effort to combat illegal immigration, and to maintain the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) policy for Salvadorans living in the United States. [179] He later confirmed on 28 October 2019 that the United States was continuing TPS for Salvadorans. [180]

In June 2019, Bukele stated that his government would no longer recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela, instead, recognizing Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate president amidst Venezuela's presidential crisis. [181] The action was welcomed by Ronald D. Johnson, the United States' ambassador to El Salvador. [181] On 3 November 2019, he expelled Venezuelan diplomats, who were appointed by Maduro, from El Salvador. [181] Bukele showed his displeasure when the United States spoke with Maduro in March 2022, accusing the United States of "deciding who is bad and who is good and also when the bad becomes good and the good becomes bad". [182]

In February 2021, Bukele arrived in the United States to meet U.S. President Joe Biden, but Biden refused to meet Bukele. [183] Bukele did not attend the 9th Summit of the Americas of June 2022 due to frustrations over the U.S. government's allegations of corruption and human rights abuses committed by his government. [184] After the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant of former President Trump's home on 8 August 2022, Bukele criticized the FBI, asking on Twitter, "What would the US Government say, if OUR police raided the house of one of the main possible contenders of OUR 2024 presidential election?" [185]

Norma Torres, a U.S. congresswoman representing California's 35th congressional district, has been a critic of Bukele and his administration since the two of them engaged in an argument on Twitter regarding the U.S. migrant crisis on the southern border. [186] She stated that she "sleeps with a gun nearby" after her social media accounts were sent "hateful messages" and images of Bukele as a result of their argument. [187] On 10 November 2022, after the 2022 elections for the 35th congressional district, Torres accused Bukele of interfering in the election for endorsing Republican challenger Mike Cargile. [188]

Relations with China

Bukele with Xi Jinping

Before becoming president, Bukele accused China of meddling in Latin American politics, especially after El Salvador withdrew recognition of Taiwan. In 2018, however, Félix Ulloa, Bukele's vice president, has stated that El Salvador would not restore relations with Taiwan. [189] In December 2019, Bukele signed a "gigantic" infrastructure agreement with China for an unknown amount. [189] Bukele met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China in December 2019. [190]

On 9 November 2022, Bukele announced that El Salvador and China had entered negotiations for a free trade agreement between the two countries. China donated fertilizer and wheat flour to El Salvador, and according to a Salvadoran government official, China also offered to buy El Salvador's external bond debt. [191]

Other bilateral relations

Other world leaders Bukele has met with include Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in November 2019, [192] Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei in January 2020, [193] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in January 2022, [194] and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in May 2022. [195] Additionally, Bukele met Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, the Qatari minister of state, on the day of his inauguration on 1 June 2019, [196] and Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, the Qatari minister of energy, in Qatar in December 2019. [197] Bukele met Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, in El Salvador on 13 September 2023. [198]

Infrastructure

Bukele and Mexican architect Fernando Romero viewing a model of the Bitcoin City airport.

One of his campaign slogans is "public services should be better than private ones". [199]

Bukele promised to sanction bus carriers that increase the rates established by law. Elements of the Police were deployed in different parts of the country to guarantee compliance with the regulations. [200] [201] During his presidential campaign, Bukele proposed the construction of a new airport in the east of the country to relieve congestion from El Salvador International Airport and bring an economic boost to the country's east. [202] On 26 April 2022, the Legislative Assembly passed a law to begin construction of the Airport of the Pacific and the Train of the Pacific. The new rail network will be 332 miles (535 kilometers) long, and the new airport will be 126,530 square feet (11,755 square meters) in size in La Unión. [203]

Accusations of corruption in government

The following officials of the Bukele administration are included in "Section 353 List of Corrupt and Undemocratic Actors for Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua", commonly known as "Engel List":

  • Francisco Javier Argueta Gomez, current Presidential Legal Advisor, for the "removal of five Supreme Court Magistrates and the Attorney General in an unusual process".
  • Christian Reynaldo Guevara Guadron, Legislative Assembly Deputy and Nuevas Ideas Party's Chief of Faction for introducing a law considered to be "a clear attempt to censor the media".
  • Jose Ernesto Sanabria, current Presidential Press Secretary, for pressuring "officials in opposition political parties to resign on threat of being charged with criminal offenses". [204]
  • Ricardo Gómez, president of the Institute for Access to Public Information, for deliberately and unjustly blocking access to public information.
  • Gerardo Guerrero and Andrés Gregori, commissioners of the Institute for Access to Public Information, for deliberately and unjustly blocking access to public information. [205]

Bukele founded the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador [ es] (CICIES) on 6 September 2019. [206] The institution's purpose is to combat a variety of crimes, including drug trafficking, corruption, and white collar crimes. [206] He also established an anti-corruption unit within the National Civil Police (PNC) which would cooperate directly with CICIES. [206]

On 17 May 2021, the United States named current and former ministers and aides as being corrupt. [207] Some of those officials were Rogelio Rivas, Guillermo Gallegos, José Luis Merino, Sigfrido Reyes, and Carolina Recinos. [207] [208] Following the report, the United States diverted funding to El Salvador away from government institutions, instead giving funding to civil society groups. [209] On 4 June 2021, Ernesto Muyshondt, who succeeded Bukele as Mayor of San Salvador from 2018 to 2021, was placed under house arrest on suspicions of electoral fraud and illegal negotiations with gangs to gain votes for ARENA in the 2014 presidential election. [210] [211] Muyshondt had just been named by Luis Almagro, the General Secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS), as one of his anti-corruption advisors, and as a result, El Salvador withdrew from the Organization of American States' anti-corruption accord. [211]

On 30 October 2021, Bukele and Nuevas Ideas accused two deputies of the legislative assembly, José Ilofio García Torres and Gerardo Balmore Aguilar Soriano, of "conspiracy against the political institution" for allegedly being bribed with "perks" such as U.S. citizenship by the embassy of the United States in San Salvador and Roy García, a vocal opponent of Bukele's presidency. [212] [213] An audio recording of the two deputies allegedly recorded a meeting between the deputies, García, and the U.S. embassy negotiating an agreement to fracture 15 to 25 deputies of Nuevas Ideas from the party to oppose Bukele's political agenda in the Legislative Assembly. [214] Both deputies were subsequently ousted from Nuevas Ideas amidst an ongoing investigation into the incident. [212] The U.S. embassy denied the allegations made by Bukele and Nuevas Ideas, stating that none of its representatives were on the audio recording. [215]

On 11 November 2021, Bukele introduced a bill to the Legislative Assembly called the "Foreign Agents Law" with the goal of "prohibiting foreign interference" in Salvadoran political affairs. [174] Juan Carlos Bidegain, the Minister of the Interior, stated that the law was meant to "guarantee the security, national sovereignty and social and political stability of the country". [174] Bukele stated that the law was modeled on the United States' Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but critics have compared it to various Nicaraguan laws which institute press censorship by shutting down organizations and arresting journalists. [174] Human Rights Watch reported on 16 December 2021 that 91 Twitter accounts belonging to journalists, lawyers, and activists were blocked by Bukele and various government institutions. [216]

Anti-corruption campaign

In September 2019, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele established the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES), an anti-corruption commission to combat drug trafficking, corruption, and white-collar crimes. CICIES was jointly operated by the Salvadoran government and the Organization of American States (OAS), and it cooperated with the National Civil Police (PNC) to form an anti-corruption unit. [217] Bukele dissolved CICIES in June 2021 after the OAS named Ernesto Muyshondt as an anti-corruption advisor; [218] Ernesto Muyshondt was accused by the Salvadoran government of electoral fraud and illicit negotiation with gang members to vote for the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) during the 2014 presidential election. [219] [220]

In 2022, the last complete year before the war against corruption was announced, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) gave El Salvador a score of 33 out of 100 and ranked it 116th out of 180 countries. [221] According to an opinion poll conducted by CID-Gallup in February 2023, only 4 percent of Salvadorans considered corruption to be the most pressing issue facing the country. [222]

Bukele's administration is often criticized by declaring government's expenses as reserved information. [223] Bukele's declaration of assets was declared confidential. During the state of emergency, active since 27 March 2022, the executive branch is allowed to manage funds while bypassing Law of Acquisitions and Procurement of the Public Administration. [224]

Announcement

On 1 June 2023, during a speech celebrating his fourth year in office, Bukele declared that his government would begin a "war against corruption" ("guerra contra la corrupción"). [225] The anti-corruption campaign is referred to as a "war against corruption", similar to the gang crackdown—known as the "war against the gangs"—which the government began in March 2022. [226] Bukele also announced that he would build a prison to hold individuals convicted of committing white-collar crimes, similar to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) which was opened in January 2023 to hold gang members arrested during the gang crackdown. [227] He stated that the PNC and the armed forces would capture white-collar criminals similar to how they capture gang members. [225]

Subsequent actions

During his declaration of the war against corruption, Bukele stated that Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado was in the process of raiding and confiscating assets belonging to former Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani as a part of the anti-corruption campaign. Among Cristiani's assets which were confiscated by the government included three of Cristiani's homes located in Lake Coatepeque, Santa Elena, and Santa Lucía, [228] 165 other properties, a Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopter ( registration: YS-1017P), 42 vehicles, and 18 financial products; the office of the attorney general (FGR) estimated that the assets confiscated were worth around US$68 million. [229]

On 31 July 2023, Erick García, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly for Nuevas Ideas, resigned after Alejandro Muyshondt, a presidential national security advisor, accused him of being involved in drug trafficking operations with MS-13; García denied the accusations. [230] On 9 August 2023, the FGR asked the Legislative Assembly to hold a pre-trial against García for drug trafficking and altering documents. [231] The Legislative Assembly voted to expel García on 16 August 2023 [232] and he was arrested by the PNC the following day. [233]

On 9 August 2023, Bukele announced on Twitter that Alejandro Muyshondt had been arrested for allegedly passing information to journalists and to former Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes. [234] He was also accused of extortion. [235]

On 14 August 2023, the FGR arrested Alberto Romero, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly for ARENA, for allegedly possessing US$1,162,388.05 which he could not justify. The FGR charged Romero with illicit enrichment, ordered him to repay US$445,766.05 to the state, and asked the Legislative Assembly to expel Romero. [236] Romero was detained at the meeting place of the Legislative Assembly. [237] On 1 September 2023, Romero was expelled from the Legislative Assembly. [238]

On 23 August 2023, the FGR accused Lorena Peña, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), and her daughter of illicitly enriching themselves with US$277,482.54. [239] Peña denied the accusations, stating that she had not enriched herself, neither licitly or illicitly. [240]

On 28 November 2023, shortly after announcing he would be requesting a presidential leave of absence to focus on his reelection campaign, President Bukele personally made a public request to the attorney general of El Salvador to investigate every member of his cabinet on an individual basis for any potential instances of corruption. [241]

2024 re-election campaign

On 1 May 2021, the Legislative Assembly controlled by Bukele substituted the five justices of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Supreme Court. [242] On 31 August 2021, the Legislative Assembly passed a number of bills, including one that forced the departure of all judges over the age of 60 or those having served over 30 years, affecting about a third of the judiciary. [243] [244] A few days later, on 3 September 2021, the newly appointed Supreme Court ruled that the president is eligible to serve two consecutive terms in office, overturning a previous ruling 2014 stating that presidents must wait ten years until being eligible to run for re-election. Constitutional lawyers argue that immediate re-election violates the country's constitution. [245] [246] [247] The court ruling allowed Bukele to run for re-election in the 2024 general election. [245] The Supreme Electoral Court accepted the court's ruling. [246]

External video
video icon Bukele's speech celebrating 201 years independence, where he announces he is running for re-election in 2024 (34:00)

The ruling was protested by both ARENA and the FMLN, with a representative of ARENA calling the ruling a "precursor to a dictatorship", and a representative from the FMLN stating that the state is serving only one person, referring to Bukele. [246] The ruling was also condemned by the U.S. government, as stated by Jean Elizabeth Manes, the chargé d'affaires of the United States to El Salvador, claiming that the ruling was "clearly contrary to the Salvadoran constitution". [246] [248] According the Manes, the ruling was a direct result of the legislature replacing the judges of the Supreme Court in May 2021. José Miguel Vivanco, the executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, stated that El Salvador was heading down the same path as Honduras and Nicaragua in allowing presidents to be reelected, adding, "democracy in El Salvador is on the edge of the abyss". [248]

During a speech celebrating the country's 201st anniversary of independence from Spain on 15 September 2022, Bukele officially announced that he will be running for re-election in 2024. [249] [250] [251] Constitutional lawyers criticized his announcement, stating that presidential re-election violates "at least" four articles of the country's constitution. [252] Polling conducted after his announcement indicate that around 90 percent of Salvadorans would support Bukele's re-election campaign. [253] [254]

Bukele registering his 2024 presidential candidacy with the TSE

On 1 June 2023 during a speech celebrating his fourth year in office, Bukele issued a proposal to the Legislative Assembly to reduce the number of municipalities from 262 to 44 and the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly from 84 to 60. [255] On 7 June 2023, the Legislative Assembly passed his approval to reduce the seats in the Legislative Assembly. [256]

On 26 June 2023, Bukele and Ulloa officially registered their pre-candidate statuses with Nuevas Ideas to run as president and vice president, respectively. [257] On 9 July 2023, Nuevas Ideas officially nominated Bukele and Ulloa as their presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively. [258] [259] On 26 October 2023, Nuevas Ideas officially initiated the process to register Bukele and Ulloa's candidacies, the last possible day to do so. [260] On 3 November 2023, the TSE officially registered their candidacies [261] amidst various requests made to the TSE to reject Bukele's candidacy. [262] [263] [264] [265] [266]

On 28 November 2023, Bukele announced that he would formally request a presidential leave of absence from the Legislative Assembly before 1 December in order to remain eligible for re-election. Bukele would be relieved of his duties and be replaced by an acting president. [267] Prior to this announcement, popular speculation believed that Bukele would be succeeded by his younger brother Karim, however, Karim has denied that he would replace Bukele. [268] [269]

On 30 November 2023, Bukele announced that he would request a license from the Legislative Assembly to run for re-election in the 2024 presidential election, as established in article 152, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of El Salvador. The license come into effect from 1 December 2023 to 31 May 2024, it would imply that Bukele would temporarily leave the presidency while he participates as a candidate in the elections scheduled for 4 February 2024. [270] [271]

According to the line of succession established and requested by Bukele to the Legislative Assembly, Claudia Juana Rodríguez de Guevara would take over as acting president during Nayib Bukele's period of license. Rodríguez would become the first woman to occupy the presidency of the Central American nation, although on an interim basis. [272]

Bukele won re-election with 84.65 percent of the vote. [273] The TSE granted Bukele and Ulloa their presidential and vice presidential credentials, respectively, on 29 February 2024. [274]

Personal life

Family

Bukele with his wife, Gabriela Rodríguez, and their daughter, Layla

Bukele married Gabriela Rodríguez, a psychologist and ballet dancer, on 6 December 2014. [11] [17] The couple has two children. The couple's first child, Layla, was born on 15 August 2019; [275] their second child, Amineah, was born on 8 November 2023. [276]

Religion

Bukele's father converted to Islam from Christianity in the 1980s, became an imam, and founded four mosques in El Salvador; [13] Bukele's mother is a Roman Catholic. [14] Bukele's paternal grandparents were Palestinian Christians who immigrated to El Salvador from Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the 1921; Bukele's paternal grandfather was a Greek Orthodox and his maternal grandmother was a Roman Catholic. [12]

Bukele's religious beliefs were a matter of controversy during his 2019 presidential campaign. Conflicting rumors claimed that Bukele was either a Christian, a Muslim, or an Atheist. [277] The controversy began when images from 2011 depicting Bukele praying at a mosque with his father and brothers spread on social media. [278] [279] Bukele dismissed the controversy as an attempt by the political right to exploit Islamophobia in the predominantly Catholic country. [277]

Bukele does not identify with any religion, however, he has stated that he believes in God and Jesus. [14] [279] In a 2015 interview Bukele said that "I am not a person who believes much in the liturgy of religions. However, I believe in God, in Jesus Christ. I believe in his word, I believe in his word revealed in the Holy Bible. And I know that God does not reject anyone because of their origins". [12] Prior to 2015, some Salvadorans believed that Bukele was a Muslim. [280]: 166  Bukele has referenced Bible verses, [277] God, and Saint Óscar Romero—the archbishop of San Salvador who was assassinated in 1980—in some of his speeches. [280]: 166–172  He has also called himself an "instrument of God" ("instrumento de Dios"). [280]: 177  In April 2015, Bukele met with Pope Francis, after which, Bukele assured that the pope had told him that Rutilio Grande—a Jesuit priest who was assassinated in 1977—would be beatified shortly. [280]: 166 

Cultural activities

Bukele has promoted surfing as a part of El Salvador's tourism market. El Salvador hosted the 2021 and 2023 ISA World Surfing Games. [281]

In January 2023, Bukele announced that El Salvador would host the Miss Universe 2023. He stated, "I am deeply honored to announce that El Salvador will host the next Miss Universe pageant at the end of this year. El Salvador is a country with great beauty, volcanoes, exquisite coffee and we have become the safest country in Latin America". The last time El Salvador hosted the beauty pageant was in 1975. [282] At the pageant, Bukele stated that "Miss Universe has given us the opportunity to show the world what we are capable of. Thank you for choosing to be part of El Salvador's rebirth". [283]

Political views

While serving as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, Bukele described himself as being a part of the "radical left" ("izquierda radical") because he wanted "radical changes" ("cambios radicales") for El Salvador. [284] Bukele also stated that his family had always had significant connections to the Salvadoran political left. He believed in social justice and that the state was obligated to guarantee Salvadorans the opportunity for "health, education, [and] productive infrastructure" ("salud, educación, [y] infraestructura productiva"). Some members of the FMLN criticized Bukele's occupation as a businessman, believing that it contradicted the "historical goal of the proletariate" ("papel histórico del proletariado") of eliminating capitalism. [17]

Following Bukele's expulsion from the FMLN and during his presidency, he has adopted conservative policies.[ citation needed] Bukele's political views have sometimes been referred to by some journalists as the ideology of "Bukelism". [285] [286] [287] He has been compared to Donald Trump for his style of government, rhetoric, and criticism of the press. [288] [289] [290]

Bukele attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2024 as one of their speakers. In his appearance, he criticized George Soros, known for being the subject of conspiracy theories about him among right-wing circles, [291] accusing him of attempting to "impose his agenda" and "dictate laws". [292] Bukele had previously claimed that "in Latin America there are journalists paid by Soros". [293] [294]

Social issues

In 2023, Celia Medrano [ es], a human rights lawyer and the former general coordinator of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights of Central America, described Bukele's positions on social issues as being "flexible" ("flexibles") and a "liquid ideology" ("ideología líquida"). Medrano asserted that Bukele changes his positions in order to appease as many voters as possible and to gauge public opinion on certain issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. [295]

In 2014, Bukele stated that he was an ally of the LGBT community, that he supported their cause for civil rights, and that he opposed discrimination against LGBT individuals. [280]: 167  In August 2021, Bukele proposed a constitutional reform to legalize same-sex marriage in El Salvador. The proposal would have changed text in the constitution which defined marriage as being between "a man and a woman" ("hombre y mujer") to defining marriage as being between "spouses" (cónyuges). The proposal also would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. The earliest Bukele's proposal could have gone into effect would have been 2027 as it would have had to be approved by two consecutive sessions of the Legislative Assembly. [296] The following month, Bukele confirmed that the proposed constitutional reform would not legalize same-sex marriage, stating on Facebook that the original text would remain intact. [297] In March 2024, Bukele stated that his government would remove "all traces" of " gender ideologies in schools and colleges". [298] [299]

El Salvador has one of the world's strictest abortion laws, banning the practice in all circumstances with no exceptions. [300] In 2013, when a Salvadoran woman known as "Beatriz" was denied an abortion despite doctors asserting that she would die while giving birth, Bukele labeled individuals who denied her an abortion as "fanatics" ("fanáticos"). In October 2018, Bukele stated that he only supported abortion in cases where the mother's life was at risk. He also expressed his opposition to abortion on request. Shortly after becoming president, Bukele came out in total opposition of abortion in any occasion. In an interview with Puerto Rican rapper René Pérez, Bukele told him that "someday, we are going to recognize that [abortion] is a great genocide" ("algún día, nos vamos a dar cuenta de que es un gran genocidio"). [295] In Bukele's August 2021 constitutional reform proposal, he also considered legalizing abortion in cases where the mother's life was at risk. He stated that the proposal would have recognized the right to life for both the mother and the unborn child. [296] In September 2021, Bukele changed his mind, maintaining that abortion would not be decriminalized and recognized the "RIGHT TO LIFE (from the moment of conception)" of the unborn. He also ruled out legalizing euthanasia. [297]

Emigration

In an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Bukele attributed mass emigration from Central America to the United States to the region's "lack of economic opportunity" and "lack of security". He described the then-present state of emigration to the United States as "immoral". He argued that emigration strained the United States and also impeded domestic efforts to improve living conditions in El Salvador. [301] In an interview with VICE News' Krishna Andavolu shortly after his inauguration, Bukele stated, "I share the same concern President Trump [has with] immigration, but for different reasons. [...] He doesn't want our people to go; I don't want our people to leave." [302]

Public image

In 2021, Time named Bukele as one of the world's 100 most influential people. [303]

Presidential approval rating

Despite being described as an autocrat, [304] [305] a caudillo, [243] [306] an authoritarian, [307] [308] [309] and a strongman, [304] [310] [311] and despite proclaiming himself as the " Dictator of El Salvador", [312] the "coolest dictator in the world", [313] the " Emperor of El Salvador", [314] and the " Philosopher King" [315] by way of irony by the accusations, Bukele has retained a high approval rating throughout his presidency, [91] [316] making him the most popular president in Salvadoran history. [317] He is considered by some journalists to be one of the most domestically popular world leaders and heads of state due to his approval ratings hovering around 87 percent. [91]

Electoral history

The following table displays Bukele's electoral history.

Year Office Type Party Main opponent Party Votes for Bukele Result Swing Ref.
Total % P. ±%
2012 Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán General FMLNCD Tomás Rodríguez ARENA 2,862 51.67 1st N/A Won Gain [22]
2015 Mayor of San Salvador General FMLNPSP Edwin Zamora ARENAPCN 89,164 50.38 1st N/A Won Gain [318]
2019 President of El Salvador General GANA Carlos Calleja ARENAPCNPDCDS 1,434,856 53.10 1st N/A Won Gain
2024 President of El Salvador General NI Manuel Flores FMLN 2,701,725 84.65 1st +31.55 Won Hold [273]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Bukele has had his presidential powers and duties suspended since 30 November 2023 in order to seek presidential re-election in 2024. Since then, Claudia Rodríguez de Guevara has served as acting president. [1]
  2. ^ Carlos Calleja was supported by a coalition of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), the National Coalition Party (PCN), the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), and Salvadoran Democracy. The coalition was known as the Alliance for a New Country. [65]

References

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Further reading

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Álvaro Rodríguez
Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán
2012–2015
Succeeded by
Preceded by Mayor of San Salvador
2015–2018
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of El Salvador
2019–present
Incumbent
Party political offices
New office Leader of Nuevas Ideas
2017–present
Incumbent
New political party GANA nominee for President of El Salvador
2019
Most recent
New political party NI nominee for President of El Salvador
2024
Current holder
Honorary titles
Preceded by President pro tempore of the
Central American Integration System

2019
Succeeded by