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Nayib Bukele

November 19, 2023

"Bukele" redirects here. For other people with the surname, see Bukele (surname).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Bukele and the second or maternal family name is Ortez.

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 president since José Napoleón Duarte (1984–1989) not to have been elected as the candidate of one of the country's two major political parties: the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

His Excellency
Nayib Bukele
Official portrait, 2019
43rd President of El Salvador
Assumed office
1 June 2019
Vice PresidentFélix Ulloa
Preceded bySalvador Sánchez Cerén
13th Mayor of San Salvador
In office
1 May 2015 – 30 April 2018
Preceded byNorman Quijano
Succeeded byErnesto Muyshondt
Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán
In office
1 May 2012 – 30 April 2015
Preceded byÁlvaro Rodríguez
Succeeded byMichelle Sol
Personal details
Born
Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez

(1981-07-24) 24 July 1981 (age 42)
San Salvador, El Salvador
Political partyNuevas Ideas (since 2023)
Other political
affiliations
Spouse
​
(m. 2014)​
Children2
EducationCentral American University (no degree)
CabinetCabinet of Nayib Bukele
Signature

Bukele served as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán for three years from 2012 to 2015, and then served three years as mayor of San Salvador, the nation's capital, from 2015 to 2018. After winning both mayoral elections as a member of the FMLN, Bukele was expelled from the party in 2017. In 2018, he established his own political party: Nuevas Ideas (NI). He sought to win the 2019 Salvadoran presidential election with the center-left Democratic Change (CD); as the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) dissolved the CD, Bukele instead ran with the center-right Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA). He won the election with 53 percent of the vote.

El Salvador's murder rate has decreased to historic lows so far in Bukele's tenure, falling by over 50 percent during his first year in office.[1][2] Although Bukele attributed the decrease in murders to his deployment of thousands of police and soldiers to gang strongholds and an increase in prison security, his government has been accused of secretly negotiating with Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) to reduce the number of murders. After nearly 80 people were killed by criminals during a single weekend in March 2022, Bukele's government has since arrested over 71,000 people with alleged gang affiliations, leading to accusations of human rights violations being committed by El Salvador's security forces.[3] Bukele's crackdown on gangs was credited as effectively decimating them, resulting in a nearly 60 percent decrease in homicides in 2022, though has also led the country to have the highest incarceration rate in the world as of 2023.[4][5][6]

Bukele has been critical of other Latin American leaders, including Daniel Ortega, Nicolás Maduro, and Juan Orlando Hernández, calling them "dictators", and has maintained high approval ratings among Salvadorans throughout his tenure.[7][8] He has been accused of governing in an authoritarian manner.[9][10][11] In February 2020, Bukele sent soldiers into the Legislative Assembly in an effort to coerce the passage of a bill that would fund additional purchases of equipment for the police and armed forces.[12] In May 2021, he led a move to fire the attorney general and five supreme court judges of El Salvador, which the United States Department of State and Organization of American States (OAS) denounced as democratic backsliding.[13] Following the approval of bitcoin in El Salvador as legal tender in September 2021, protests against Bukele's government took place. His announcement that he would run in the 2024 Salvadoran general election led to criticism by constitutional law experts and organizations that presidential re-election violated the country's constitution.[14]

Early life and education edit

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was born on 24 July 1981 in San Salvador.[15] He is a son of Armando Bukele Kattán and Olga Ortez de Bukele.[15][16] Bukele's paternal grandparents were Palestinian Christians from Jerusalem and Bethlehem while his maternal grandmother was Catholic and his maternal grandfather was Greek Orthodox.[17][18] His father later converted to Islam and became an imam.[17]

Bukele studied law at the Central American University, but later ended his studies and founded his first company at age 18.[15][16][19] According to a 2017 article in the digital newspaper El Faro, Bukele owned Yamaha Motors El Salvador,[20] a company that sells and distributes Yamaha products in El Salvador.[21] He was also the director and president of OBERMET, S.A. de C.V. in 2011.[22]

Early political career edit

Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán edit

On 11 March 2012, he was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, in the department of La Libertad, representing a coalition of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) with 2,754 votes (49.72%) and Democratic Change (CD) with 108 votes (1.95%), for a total of 2,862 votes (50.68%), defeating the incumbent Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), which won 2,585 votes (46.67%).[16][23] He took office on 1 May 2012.[15][16]

During his mayorship, he provided all adults of Nuevo Cuscatlán over the age of 55 a monthly basket to cover basic nutritional needs.[15] Before Bukele took office, Nuevo Cuscatlán had around 12 homicides per year, but during his three-year term, only one homicide was reported.[15] He also offered scholarships to all youths with a GPA above a 3.5 to be able to go any university in El Salvador, believing that such awards for academic achievements would help combat crime among youths.[15] Throughout his term, he donated his salary to the scholarships that he was offering for youths in Nuevo Cuscatlán.[24] On 21 January 2015, Bukele inaugurated a new boulevard which connected Nuevo Cuscatlán with Huizúcar and Antiguo Cuscatlán.[25] Bukele performed much of his works as mayor with funding from ALBA Petróleos, an association owned by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.[26]

Mayor of San Salvador edit

 
Bukele with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén
 
Bukele with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen

In the municipal elections of 2015, he won the mayoralty of San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, representing a coalition of the FMLN and the Salvadoran Progressive Party [es] (PSP) that won 89,164 votes (50.37% of total). His main challenger, businessman and former ARENA deputy Edwin Zamora in a coalition with the National Coalition Party (PCN), received only 82,288 votes (46.49%).[27] The latter party had controlled the city during the previous six years. Bukele took office on 1 May 2015.[15][16]

Upon taking office, Bukele reverted the names of two streets in San Salvador: Calle Mayor Roberto D'Aubuisson to Calle San Antonio Abad A La Vía and Boulevard Coronel José Arturo Castellanos to Boulevard Venezuela.[28] Both names were changed by his predecessor, Norman Quijano, during his term, the former being named after Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, who ordered the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero in 1980 during the Salvadoran Civil War and founded ARENA in 1981, and the latter being named after Colonel José Castellanos Contreras, who saved 40,000 Jews from the Holocaust in Central Europe by providing them fake Salvadoran passports.[28][29][30] Bukele began his "revitalization" of San Salvador with the relocation of street sellers, a change which was positively received by the public and the media.[31] He also built the Cuscatlán Market and San Salvador's first municipal library.[32]

In February 2017, Bukele visited Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to "enhance" the sister city relationship between San Salvador and Taipei.[33] In February 2018, he attended the 32nd International Mayors Conference in Jerusalem,[17] where he was seen praying at the Western Wall,[34] and revealed that his wife's grandfather was a Sephardic Jew.[35] During the last months of his term, Bukele brushed up the historic center of San Salvador by expanding roads, remodeling buildings, and rebuilding electric and telecommunication lines, all costing around $5.7 million.[16][36]

Expulsion from the FMLN edit

On 10 October 2017, Bukele was expelled from the FMLN, accused by the FMLN Ethics Tribunal of promoting internal division within the party, verbally and physically attacking fellow party member Xóchitl Marchelli, performing defamatory acts against the political party, and heavily attacking and criticizing incumbent FMLN President Salvador Sánchez Cerén.[37][38] Bukele did not attend the hearing scheduled for 7 October 2017 by the FMLN Ethics Tribunal, arguing that they were biased in favor of the plaintiffs.[39] The FMLN lost 20 municipalities and 8 seats in the Legislative Assembly in the subsequent 2018 legislative election. Some political experts have speculated that the losses were in part due to the expulsion of Bukele from the FMLN.[16]

Election as president edit

 
Bukele on election day

After Bukele's expulsion from the FMLN, his aspirations towards 2019 moved in the direction of participating in the presidential elections as an independent who rejects the current political system.[40] He had wanted to run for president as a member of the FMLN; however, resistance from party leadership prevented him from doing so.[41] He established the political party Nuevas Ideas ("New Ideas") with the goal of making it a political party where he could run as a candidate for the presidency of El Salvador.[16][42]

Following the announcement of his presidential aspirations, he was opposed by both the ruling FMLN party on the political left, and ARENA on the political right, as they blocked any attempts for him to found his own political party and politically canceled any party that he has attempted to use for his candidacy, as they did so with Democratic Change.[16] His attempt to run with the party ended when the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) effectively dissolved the party.[16] Bukele eventually joined the center-right Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) party to mount his presidential bid.[16][43]

On 3 February 2019, Bukele announced that he had won the presidential elections with ease.[16] Challengers Carlos Calleja of the ARENA[b] and Hugo Martínez of the FMLN conceded defeat. He won 53 percent of the vote, thereby eliminating the need for a run-off election. He is the first candidate to win the presidency since the end of the Salvadoran Civil War who did not represent either of the major two parties. In his victory speech he declared, "Today we have turned the page on the postwar period."[44]

Presidency edit

 
Bukele speaking at his inauguration.

Bukele assumed office on 1 June 2019, succeeding Sánchez Cerén.[45][46] Bukele announced a cabinet of sixteen people made up of eight men and eight women, who will serve until 1 June 2024.[46]

Political crises edit

Main articles: 2020 Salvadoran political crisis and 2021 Salvadoran political crisis

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.[47][48] 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.[49][50] Bukele rallied supporters to call upon the opposition to approve the loan,[49] 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.[51][52] When the meeting was supposed to occur, Bukele ordered soldiers into the Legislative Assembly to intimidate legislators to approve the loan.[53][54][55] The incident, known in El Salvador as 9F,[56] was condemned by the opposition as an attempted self-coup and the Supreme Court of El Salvador prohibited Bukele from exercising powers not granted in the Constitution.[57][58]

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.[9] On 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.[59] The event has been condemned as a self-coup by opposition politicians, accusing Bukele and Nuevas Ideas of committing a power grab.[59][60][61] The incident was condemned by the United States and has been cited as an instance of democratic backsliding.[62][63][64]

COVID-19 pandemic edit

Further information: COVID-19 pandemic in El Salvador

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.[65]

 
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.[66] During the lockdown, 4,236 people were arrested by the National Civil Police for violating the lockdown order.[66] Human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, have criticized the arrests, citing arbitrary arrests and police abuses.[66] 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.[67] On 27 May 2020, the United States donated 250 ventilators to El Salvador.[68] During the press conference where Bukele received the ventilators, he stated that he took hydroxychloroquine.[68] 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.[69]

In January 2021, Transparency International cited both El Salvador and Colombia as examples of "an explosion of irregularities and corruption."[70] Transparency International cited the Corruption Perceptions Index of 2020 as its basis.[70] 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 on 1 May 2021.[59][71]

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.[72] At the time, El Salvador had received 1.9 million doses, while Honduras had only received 59,000.[72] 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.[73][74]

Adoption of bitcoin edit

See also: Bitcoin in El Salvador
 
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.[75] The Legislative Assembly approved the bill on 8 June 2021, and it was scheduled to come into effect on 7 September 2021.[76][77] 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.[78] 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.[77]

On 6 September 2021, Bukele announced that the Salvadoran government had bought its first 400 bitcoins.[79] 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.[80] 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."[81] Meanwhile, platforms such as Apple and Huawei weren't offering the Salvadoran government-backed digital wallet, named "Chivo",[82] while internet servers were forced to move offline after they were overwhelmed with user registrations.[81] Some "one thousand protesters" took to the streets of San Salvador to express their opposition to the country's adoption of bitcoin.[81][83]

In November 2021, Bukele announced that he planned to build the world's first 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.[84]

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.[85][86] 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."[87] As of June 2022, the Salvadoran government had lost $56 million in bitcoin,[88] and economists stated that the country is likely going to default on its debt.[89]

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.[90] In September 2022, Bukele mocked the Bank of England on Twitter after the pound sterling fell to its all-time lowest exchange rate to the US dollar, tweeting "told you" in reference to a tweet from November 2021 criticizing the Bank of England for "printing money out of thin air".[91]

Murder rate and crime edit

See also: Crime in El Salvador

On 20 June 2019, Bukele announced his "Territorial Control Plan" which would increase policing of certain areas of the country in an effort to combat high crime rates and gangs in the country.[49][92] Both the National Civil Police and the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES) would also be equipped with better firearms, ammunition, and vests as a part of the Territorial Control Plan.[92] As a result of his Territorial Control Plan, El Salvador's homicide rate fell from 52 homicides per 100,000 people in 2018, the highest in the world at the time,[93] to 36 homicides per 100,000 people in 2019.[94][95] 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.[96][97] InSight Crime referred the homicide rate of 2021 as "unimaginable,"[97] as, only six years prior in 2015, the homicide rate was 103 homicides per 100,000 people.[98] 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.[99]

Accusations of negotiations with gangs edit

 
MS-13 is one of the largest gangs active in El Salvador.

In September 2020, the website El Faro accused Bukele of having secretly negotiated a deal with Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), the most powerful gang in the country, 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 18th Street Gang (Barrio 18).[100][101] Bukele denied the allegations and shared photos of the prisons from that April, which showed gang members rounded up in cramped conditions.[67][102] Bukele subsequently launched an investigation into El Faro on suspicions of money laundering.[103]

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.[104][105][106] 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.[106] Bukele rejected the accusations, stating that the United States sought "absolute submission" from El Salvador instead of cooperation.[106]

2022–23 gang crackdown edit

Main article: Salvadoran gang crackdown

On 26 March 2022, El Salvador recorded 62 murders committed in a single day, the deadliest day in Salvadoran history in 30 years since the end of the civil war.[107] Most of the murders were committed by MS-13 and 18th Street Gang.[108] The following day, the Legislative Assembly voted to enact article 29 of the Salvadoran constitution,[109] declaring a 30-day state of emergency, referred to as the "Régimen de Excepción" ("State of Exception"),[110] which suspended some constitutional civil liberties and mobilized the military to neighborhoods controlled by the country's criminal gangs.[107] According to the national police, a total of 71,976 alleged gang members, which Bukele and the police refer to as "terrorists," were arrested as of 12 July 2023, 485 days since the declaration of a state of emergency.[111]

 
An army patrol in Santa Tecla during the gang crackdown in July 2022

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."[112] Bukele also warned Salvadoran parents to keep their children away from involvement with gangs as it would lead to "prison or death."[113]

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.[114] 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.[115][116] In total, Legislative Assembly has extended the state of emergency by 30 days seventeen times.[117] 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.[118]

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."[119] 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.[120] In early June 2022, Amnesty International stated that the government has committed "massive human rights violations", including torture, against those incarcerated,[121] and stating that 2 percent of the country's population have been incarcerated and that there have been 18 deaths in custody.[122] 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.[123]

External video
  Bukele's news conference on the murders of 3 police officers

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.[124] 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."[125] Similarly, on 13 July 2022, a group of soldiers was attacked by 10 gang members in Nueva Concepción, one of which 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.[126][127]

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.[128] The prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center and located in Tecoluca, CECOT 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.[129]

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.[130] 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 mention gang affiliation and comparing this to the removal and banning of swastikas in Germany after WWII.[131]

Politicians across Latin America—in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Peru—have implemented or have called for the implementation of security policies similar to those implemented by Bukele.[132]

Accusations of corruption in government edit

See also: Corruption in El Salvador

Bukele founded the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES) (es) on 6 September 2019.[133] The institution's purpose is to combat a variety of crimes, including drug trafficking, corruption, and white collar crimes.[133] He also established an anti-corruption unit within the National Civil Police (PNC) which would cooperate directly with CICIES.[133]

On 17 May 2021, the United States named current and former ministers and aides as being corrupt.[134] Some of those officials were Rogelio Rivas, Guillermo Gallegos, José Luis Merino, Sigfrido Reyes, and Carolina Recinos.[134][135] Following the report, the United States diverted funding to El Salvador away from government institutions, instead giving funding to civil society groups.[136] 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.[137][138] 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.[138]

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.[139][140] 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.[141] Both deputies were subsequently ousted from Nuevas Ideas amidst an ongoing investigation into the incident.[139] The U.S. embassy denied the allegations made by Bukele and Nuevas Ideas, stating that none of its representatives were on the audio recording.[142]

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.[143] 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."[143] 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.[143] 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.[144]

Foreign policy edit

See also: List of international trips made by Nayib Bukele

Between 5 June 2019 and 22 December 2019, Bukele served as the president pro tempore of the Central American Integration System (SICA).[145][146][147] Bukele is a proponent of Central American reunification.[148][149]

Bukele considers Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, and Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, to be dictators.[150] He refused to recognize the presidency of Manuel Merino in Peru in November 2020, describing his government as "putschist".[151] Bukele and the Legislative Assembly denounced the results of the 2021 Nicaraguan general election, which have widely been seen by several governments as fraudulent.[143] On 15 June 2019, Bukele withdrew El Salvador's recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the Polisario Front in favor of improved relations with Morocco.[152]

Relations with the United States edit

 
Bukele with U.S. President Donald Trump in September 2019
 
Bukele and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
See also: El Salvador–United States relations

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.[153] He later confirmed on 28 October 2019 that the United States was continuing TPS for Salvadorans.[154]

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.[155] The action was welcomed by Ronald D. Johnson, the United States' ambassador to El Salvador.[155] On 3 November 2019, he expelled Venezuelan diplomats, who were appointed by Maduro, from El Salvador.[155] 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."[156]

In February 2021, Bukele arrived in the United States to meet U.S. President Joe Biden, but Biden refused to meet Bukele.[157] 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.[158] 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?"[159]

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.[160] 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.[161] 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.[162]

Relations with China edit

See also: China–El Salvador relations
 
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.[163] In December 2019, Bukele signed a "gigantic" infrastructure agreement with China for an unknown amount.[163] Bukele met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China in December 2019.[164]

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.[165]

Other bilateral relations edit

Other world leaders Bukele has met with include Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in November 2019,[166] Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei in January 2020,[167] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in January 2022,[168] and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in May 2022.[169] Additionally, Bukele met Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, the Qatari minister of state, on the day of his inauguration on 1 June 2019,[170] and Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, the Qatari minister of energy, in Qatar in December 2019.[171] Bukele met Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, in El Salvador on 13 September 2023.[172]

2024 re-election campaign edit

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.[173][174] A few days later, on 3 September 2021, the 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.[175][176] The court ruling allows Bukele to run for re-election in the 2024 general election.[175] The Supreme Electoral Court accepted the court's ruling.[176]

External video
  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.[176] 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."[176][177] 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".[177]

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.[178][179][180] Constitutional lawyers criticized his announcement, stating that presidential re-election violates "at least" four articles of the country's constitution.[181] Polling conducted after his announcement indicate that around 90 percent of Salvadorans would support Bukele's re-election campaign.[182][183]

 
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.[184] On 7 June 2023, the Legislative Assembly passed his approval to reduce the seats in the Legislative Assembly.[185]

On 26 June 2023, Bukele and Ulloa officially registered their pre-candidate statuses with Nuevas Ideas to run as president and vice president, respectively.[186] On 9 July 2023, Nuevas Ideas officially nominated Bukele and Ulloa as their presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively.[187][188] On 26 October 2023, Nuevas Ideas officially initiated the process to register Bukele and Ulloa's candidacies, the last possible day to do so.[189] On 3 November 2023, the TSE officially registered their candidacies[190] amidst various requests made to the TSE to reject Bukele's candidacy.[191][192][193][194][195]

Presidential approval rating edit

Main article: Opinion polling on the Nayib Bukele presidency

Despite being described as an autocrat,[196][197] a caudillo,[173][198] an authoritarian,[199][200][201] and a strongman,[196][202][203] and despite proclaiming himself as the "Dictator of El Salvador",[204] the "coolest dictator in the world",[205] and the "Emperor of El Salvador", by way of irony by the accusations,[206] Bukele has retained a high approval rating throughout his presidency,[103][207] making him the most popular president in Salvadoran history.[208] 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.[103]

Personal life edit

Family edit

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

Bukele was born into a Christian household, although his father converted to Islam later in life.[209] As the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, Bukele's religious beliefs were a controversial subject in the 2019 election,[210] with an image surfacing showing Bukele praying at the mosque in Mexico City.[209] In February 2018, The Times of Israel published an image of Bukele "in deep reflection at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City."[17] Bukele has three younger brothers—Karim, Yusef, and Ibrajim—as well as four half-sisters and two half-brothers on his father's side of the family.[211]

Bukele has publicly stated he considers himself a believer in God first rather than religion.[17][212] In a 2015 interview he 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."[17][213]

He married Gabriela Rodríguez, a psychologist and educator, on 6 December 2014.[214] In 2018, Bukele told the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, that Rodríguez has "Jewish-Sephardic blood".[17] The couple has one child, named Layla, who was born during Bukele's presidency on 15 August 2019.[215] The couple's second child, Aminah, on 8 November 2023.[216]

Cultural activities edit

Bukele has promoted surfing as a part of El Salvador's tourism market. El Salvador hosted the 2021 ISA World Surfing Games, and he confirmed El Salvador will also host the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.[217]

In January 2023, Bukele announced that El Salvador would host the Miss Universe at the end of the year. 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.[218]

Political views edit

Bukele's political views have sometimes been referred to by some journalists as the ideology of "Bukelism".[219][220][221] Bukele has been compared to Donald Trump for his style of government, rhetoric, and criticism of the press.[222][223][224]

Public transport edit

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

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.[225][226] 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.[227] 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.[228]

Social issues edit

Bukele has stated that he opposes abortion. Initially accepting of exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother's life is at risk, Bukele later came out against any exceptions during his presidency.[229] Bukele has stated: "I think, in the end, in the future, we're going to realize that [abortion] is a great genocide that we’ve committed."[230] Bukele has stated that he is opposed to same-sex marriage and believes marriage is between "a man and woman."[230] In September 2021, Bukele stated that the Legislative Assembly would not decriminalize abortion, legalize same-sex marriage, or legalize euthanasia in any potential constitutional reforms.[231]

Emigration edit

In an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson, Bukele attributed mass emigration from Central America to the United States to the region's "lack of economic opportunity" and "lack of security," and described the status quo as "immoral," arguing that emigration not only strains the United States, but also impedes domestic efforts to improve living conditions in El Salvador.[232] 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."[233]

Depictions in popular culture edit

Bukele was listed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of 2021.[234]

A character inspired by Bukele called "Nashim Bupele" appeared on the Korean drama Becoming Witch. In the show's seventh episode, one of the characters mentioned that he is a personal friend of Nashim Bupele, briefly showing his image, and how El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin its legal tender. Bukele ironized the drama by describing the actor as a "questionable choice".[235]

Electoral history edit

Year Office Type Party Main opponent Party Votes for Bukele Result Swing
Total % P. ±%
2012 Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán General FMLN–CD Tomás Rodríguez ARENA 2,862 51.67 1st N/A Won Gain
2015 Mayor of San Salvador General FMLN–PSP Edwin Zamora ARENA–PCN 89,164 50.27 1st N/A Won Gain
2019 President of El Salvador General GANA Carlos Calleja ARENA–PCN–PDC–DS 1,434,856 53.10 1st N/A Won Gain
2024 President of El Salvador General NI To be determined

Notes edit

  1. ^ Bukele ran for president under the political affiliation of Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), as Nuevas Ideas (NI) had not yet been registered by the Supreme Electoral Court.
  2. ^ Carlos Calleja was supported by a coalition of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), National Coalition Party (PCN), Christian Democratic Party (PDC), and Salvadoran Democracy (DS).

References edit

Citations edit

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Bibliography edit

  • Roque Baldovinos, Ricardo (May–August 2021). "Nayib Bukele: Populismo e Implosión Democrática en El Salvador" [Nayib Bukele: Populism and Democratic Implosion in El Salvador] (PDF). Andamios (in Spanish). 18 (46): 231–253. doi:10.29092/uacm.v18i46.844. S2CID 237824511. Retrieved 7 November 2021.

Further reading edit

  • Freeman, Will (16 February 2023). "Nayib Bukele's Growing List of Latin American Admirers". Americas Quarterly. Retrieved 16 February 2023.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nayib Bukele.
  • Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)
  • Biography on Official Presidential Website (in Spanish)
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
2018–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

November 19, 2023
nayib, bukele, bukele, redirects, here, other, people, with, surname, bukele, surname, this, spanish, name, first, paternal, surname, bukele, second, maternal, family, name, ortez, nayib, armando, bukele, ortez, spanish, pronunciation, naˈʝiβ, buˈkele, born, j. Bukele redirects here For other people with the surname see Bukele surname In this Spanish name the first or paternal surname is Bukele and the second or maternal family name is Ortez Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez Spanish pronunciation naˈʝib 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 president since Jose Napoleon Duarte 1984 1989 not to have been elected as the candidate of one of the country s two major political parties the left wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front FMLN and the right wing Nationalist Republican Alliance ARENA His ExcellencyNayib BukeleOfficial portrait 201943rd President of El SalvadorIncumbentAssumed office 1 June 2019Vice PresidentFelix UlloaPreceded bySalvador Sanchez Ceren13th Mayor of San SalvadorIn office 1 May 2015 30 April 2018Preceded byNorman QuijanoSucceeded byErnesto MuyshondtMayor of Nuevo CuscatlanIn office 1 May 2012 30 April 2015Preceded byAlvaro RodriguezSucceeded byMichelle SolPersonal detailsBornNayib Armando Bukele Ortez 1981 07 24 24 July 1981 age 42 San Salvador El SalvadorPolitical partyNuevas Ideas since 2023 Other politicalaffiliationsGANA 2018 2023 a CD 2018 FMLN 2012 2017 SpouseGabriela Rodriguez m 2014 wbr Children2EducationCentral American University no degree CabinetCabinet of Nayib BukeleSignatureBukele served as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan for three years from 2012 to 2015 and then served three years as mayor of San Salvador the nation s capital from 2015 to 2018 After winning both mayoral elections as a member of the FMLN Bukele was expelled from the party in 2017 In 2018 he established his own political party Nuevas Ideas NI He sought to win the 2019 Salvadoran presidential election with the center left Democratic Change CD as the Supreme Electoral Court TSE dissolved the CD Bukele instead ran with the center right Grand Alliance for National Unity GANA He won the election with 53 percent of the vote El Salvador s murder rate has decreased to historic lows so far in Bukele s tenure falling by over 50 percent during his first year in office 1 2 Although Bukele attributed the decrease in murders to his deployment of thousands of police and soldiers to gang strongholds and an increase in prison security his government has been accused of secretly negotiating with Mara Salvatrucha MS 13 to reduce the number of murders After nearly 80 people were killed by criminals during a single weekend in March 2022 Bukele s government has since arrested over 71 000 people with alleged gang affiliations leading to accusations of human rights violations being committed by El Salvador s security forces 3 Bukele s crackdown on gangs was credited as effectively decimating them resulting in a nearly 60 percent decrease in homicides in 2022 though has also led the country to have the highest incarceration rate in the world as of 2023 4 5 6 Bukele has been critical of other Latin American leaders including Daniel Ortega Nicolas Maduro and Juan Orlando Hernandez calling them dictators and has maintained high approval ratings among Salvadorans throughout his tenure 7 8 He has been accused of governing in an authoritarian manner 9 10 11 In February 2020 Bukele sent soldiers into the Legislative Assembly in an effort to coerce the passage of a bill that would fund additional purchases of equipment for the police and armed forces 12 In May 2021 he led a move to fire the attorney general and five supreme court judges of El Salvador which the United States Department of State and Organization of American States OAS denounced as democratic backsliding 13 Following the approval of bitcoin in El Salvador as legal tender in September 2021 protests against Bukele s government took place His announcement that he would run in the 2024 Salvadoran general election led to criticism by constitutional law experts and organizations that presidential re election violated the country s constitution 14 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Early political career 2 1 Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan 2 2 Mayor of San Salvador 2 2 1 Expulsion from the FMLN 2 3 Election as president 3 Presidency 3 1 Political crises 3 2 COVID 19 pandemic 3 3 Adoption of bitcoin 3 4 Murder rate and crime 3 4 1 Accusations of negotiations with gangs 3 4 2 2022 23 gang crackdown 3 5 Accusations of corruption in government 3 6 Foreign policy 3 6 1 Relations with the United States 3 6 2 Relations with China 3 6 3 Other bilateral relations 3 7 2024 re election campaign 3 8 Presidential approval rating 4 Personal life 4 1 Family 4 2 Cultural activities 5 Political views 5 1 Public transport 5 2 Social issues 5 3 Emigration 6 Depictions in popular culture 7 Electoral history 8 Notes 9 References 9 1 Citations 9 2 Bibliography 10 Further reading 11 External linksEarly life and education editNayib Armando Bukele Ortez was born on 24 July 1981 in San Salvador 15 He is a son of Armando Bukele Kattan and Olga Ortez de Bukele 15 16 Bukele s paternal grandparents were Palestinian Christians from Jerusalem and Bethlehem while his maternal grandmother was Catholic and his maternal grandfather was Greek Orthodox 17 18 His father later converted to Islam and became an imam 17 Bukele studied law at the Central American University but later ended his studies and founded his first company at age 18 15 16 19 According to a 2017 article in the digital newspaper El Faro Bukele owned Yamaha Motors El Salvador 20 a company that sells and distributes Yamaha products in El Salvador 21 He was also the director and president of OBERMET S A de C V in 2011 22 Early political career editMayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan edit On 11 March 2012 he was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan in the department of La Libertad representing a coalition of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front FMLN with 2 754 votes 49 72 and Democratic Change CD with 108 votes 1 95 for a total of 2 862 votes 50 68 defeating the incumbent Nationalist Republican Alliance ARENA which won 2 585 votes 46 67 16 23 He took office on 1 May 2012 15 16 During his mayorship he provided all adults of Nuevo Cuscatlan over the age of 55 a monthly basket to cover basic nutritional needs 15 Before Bukele took office Nuevo Cuscatlan had around 12 homicides per year but during his three year term only one homicide was reported 15 He also offered scholarships to all youths with a GPA above a 3 5 to be able to go any university in El Salvador believing that such awards for academic achievements would help combat crime among youths 15 Throughout his term he donated his salary to the scholarships that he was offering for youths in Nuevo Cuscatlan 24 On 21 January 2015 Bukele inaugurated a new boulevard which connected Nuevo Cuscatlan with Huizucar and Antiguo Cuscatlan 25 Bukele performed much of his works as mayor with funding from ALBA Petroleos an association owned by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA 26 Mayor of San Salvador edit nbsp Bukele with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren nbsp Bukele with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing wenIn the municipal elections of 2015 he won the mayoralty of San Salvador the capital city of El Salvador representing a coalition of the FMLN and the Salvadoran Progressive Party es PSP that won 89 164 votes 50 37 of total His main challenger businessman and former ARENA deputy Edwin Zamora in a coalition with the National Coalition Party PCN received only 82 288 votes 46 49 27 The latter party had controlled the city during the previous six years Bukele took office on 1 May 2015 15 16 Upon taking office Bukele reverted the names of two streets in San Salvador Calle Mayor Roberto D Aubuisson to Calle San Antonio Abad A La Via and Boulevard Coronel Jose Arturo Castellanos to Boulevard Venezuela 28 Both names were changed by his predecessor Norman Quijano during his term the former being named after Major Roberto D Aubuisson who ordered the assassination of Archbishop oscar Romero in 1980 during the Salvadoran Civil War and founded ARENA in 1981 and the latter being named after Colonel Jose Castellanos Contreras who saved 40 000 Jews from the Holocaust in Central Europe by providing them fake Salvadoran passports 28 29 30 Bukele began his revitalization of San Salvador with the relocation of street sellers a change which was positively received by the public and the media 31 He also built the Cuscatlan Market and San Salvador s first municipal library 32 In February 2017 Bukele visited Taipei the capital of Taiwan and met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing wen to enhance the sister city relationship between San Salvador and Taipei 33 In February 2018 he attended the 32nd International Mayors Conference in Jerusalem 17 where he was seen praying at the Western Wall 34 and revealed that his wife s grandfather was a Sephardic Jew 35 During the last months of his term Bukele brushed up the historic center of San Salvador by expanding roads remodeling buildings and rebuilding electric and telecommunication lines all costing around 5 7 million 16 36 Expulsion from the FMLN edit On 10 October 2017 Bukele was expelled from the FMLN accused by the FMLN Ethics Tribunal of promoting internal division within the party verbally and physically attacking fellow party member Xochitl Marchelli performing defamatory acts against the political party and heavily attacking and criticizing incumbent FMLN President Salvador Sanchez Ceren 37 38 Bukele did not attend the hearing scheduled for 7 October 2017 by the FMLN Ethics Tribunal arguing that they were biased in favor of the plaintiffs 39 The FMLN lost 20 municipalities and 8 seats in the Legislative Assembly in the subsequent 2018 legislative election Some political experts have speculated that the losses were in part due to the expulsion of Bukele from the FMLN 16 Election as president edit nbsp Bukele on election dayAfter Bukele s expulsion from the FMLN his aspirations towards 2019 moved in the direction of participating in the presidential elections as an independent who rejects the current political system 40 He had wanted to run for president as a member of the FMLN however resistance from party leadership prevented him from doing so 41 He established the political party Nuevas Ideas New Ideas with the goal of making it a political party where he could run as a candidate for the presidency of El Salvador 16 42 Following the announcement of his presidential aspirations he was opposed by both the ruling FMLN party on the political left and ARENA on the political right as they blocked any attempts for him to found his own political party and politically canceled any party that he has attempted to use for his candidacy as they did so with Democratic Change 16 His attempt to run with the party ended when the Supreme Electoral Court TSE effectively dissolved the party 16 Bukele eventually joined the center right Grand Alliance for National Unity GANA party to mount his presidential bid 16 43 On 3 February 2019 Bukele announced that he had won the presidential elections with ease 16 Challengers Carlos Calleja of the ARENA b and Hugo Martinez of the FMLN conceded defeat He won 53 percent of the vote thereby eliminating the need for a run off election He is the first candidate to win the presidency since the end of the Salvadoran Civil War who did not represent either of the major two parties In his victory speech he declared Today we have turned the page on the postwar period 44 Presidency edit nbsp Bukele speaking at his inauguration Bukele assumed office on 1 June 2019 succeeding Sanchez Ceren 45 46 Bukele announced a cabinet of sixteen people made up of eight men and eight women who will serve until 1 June 2024 46 Political crises edit Main articles 2020 Salvadoran political crisis and 2021 Salvadoran political crisis 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 47 48 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 49 50 Bukele rallied supporters to call upon the opposition to approve the loan 49 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 51 52 When the meeting was supposed to occur Bukele ordered soldiers into the Legislative Assembly to intimidate legislators to approve the loan 53 54 55 The incident known in El Salvador as 9F 56 was condemned by the opposition as an attempted self coup and the Supreme Court of El Salvador prohibited Bukele from exercising powers not granted in the Constitution 57 58 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 9 On the same day the Legislative Assembly voted to remove the five justices of the Supreme Court s constitutional court and Raul Melara El Salvador s attorney general 59 The event has been condemned as a self coup by opposition politicians accusing Bukele and Nuevas Ideas of committing a power grab 59 60 61 The incident was condemned by the United States and has been cited as an instance of democratic backsliding 62 63 64 COVID 19 pandemic edit Further information COVID 19 pandemic in El Salvador 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 65 nbsp Entrance of Hospital El SalvadorOn 21 March 2020 Bukele instated a nationwide lockdown in an effort to combat the COVID 19 pandemic which was to last 30 days 66 During the lockdown 4 236 people were arrested by the National Civil Police for violating the lockdown order 66 Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have criticized the arrests citing arbitrary arrests and police abuses 66 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 67 On 27 May 2020 the United States donated 250 ventilators to El Salvador 68 During the press conference where Bukele received the ventilators he stated that he took hydroxychloroquine 68 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 69 In January 2021 Transparency International cited both El Salvador and Colombia as examples of an explosion of irregularities and corruption 70 Transparency International cited the Corruption Perceptions Index of 2020 as its basis 70 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 on 1 May 2021 59 71 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 72 At the time El Salvador had received 1 9 million doses while Honduras had only received 59 000 72 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 73 74 Adoption of bitcoin edit See also Bitcoin in El Salvador nbsp A bitcoin ATM in El ZonteOn 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 75 The Legislative Assembly approved the bill on 8 June 2021 and it was scheduled to come into effect on 7 September 2021 76 77 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 78 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 77 On 6 September 2021 Bukele announced that the Salvadoran government had bought its first 400 bitcoins 79 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 80 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 81 Meanwhile platforms such as Apple and Huawei weren t offering the Salvadoran government backed digital wallet named Chivo 82 while internet servers were forced to move offline after they were overwhelmed with user registrations 81 Some one thousand protesters took to the streets of San Salvador to express their opposition to the country s adoption of bitcoin 81 83 In November 2021 Bukele announced that he planned to build the world s first bitcoin city in the southeastern region of La Union at the base of the Conchagua volcano which would use geothermal energy to power bitcoin mining 84 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 85 86 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 87 As of June 2022 update the Salvadoran government had lost 56 million in bitcoin 88 and economists stated that the country is likely going to default on its debt 89 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 90 In September 2022 Bukele mocked the Bank of England on Twitter after the pound sterling fell to its all time lowest exchange rate to the US dollar tweeting told you in reference to a tweet from November 2021 criticizing the Bank of England for printing money out of thin air 91 Murder rate and crime edit See also Crime in El Salvador On 20 June 2019 Bukele announced his Territorial Control Plan which would increase policing of certain areas of the country in an effort to combat high crime rates and gangs in the country 49 92 Both the National Civil Police and the Armed Forces of El Salvador FAES would also be equipped with better firearms ammunition and vests as a part of the Territorial Control Plan 92 As a result of his Territorial Control Plan El Salvador s homicide rate fell from 52 homicides per 100 000 people in 2018 the highest in the world at the time 93 to 36 homicides per 100 000 people in 2019 94 95 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 96 97 InSight Crime referred the homicide rate of 2021 as unimaginable 97 as only six years prior in 2015 the homicide rate was 103 homicides per 100 000 people 98 In January 2023 Minister of Defense Rene 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 99 Accusations of negotiations with gangs edit nbsp MS 13 is one of the largest gangs active in El Salvador In September 2020 the website El Faro accused Bukele of having secretly negotiated a deal with Mara Salvatrucha MS 13 the most powerful gang in the country 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 18th Street Gang Barrio 18 100 101 Bukele denied the allegations and shared photos of the prisons from that April which showed gang members rounded up in cramped conditions 67 102 Bukele subsequently launched an investigation into El Faro on suspicions of money laundering 103 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 104 105 106 The department sanctioned Osiris Luna Meza Vice Minister of Justice and Public Security and Carlos Marroquin Chica chairman of its Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit alleging that they repeatedly negotiated with the gangs 106 Bukele rejected the accusations stating that the United States sought absolute submission from El Salvador instead of cooperation 106 2022 23 gang crackdown edit Main article Salvadoran gang crackdown On 26 March 2022 El Salvador recorded 62 murders committed in a single day the deadliest day in Salvadoran history in 30 years since the end of the civil war 107 Most of the murders were committed by MS 13 and 18th Street Gang 108 The following day the Legislative Assembly voted to enact article 29 of the Salvadoran constitution 109 declaring a 30 day state of emergency referred to as the Regimen de Excepcion State of Exception 110 which suspended some constitutional civil liberties and mobilized the military to neighborhoods controlled by the country s criminal gangs 107 According to the national police a total of 71 976 alleged gang members which Bukele and the police refer to as terrorists were arrested as of 12 July 2023 485 days since the declaration of a state of emergency 111 nbsp An army patrol in Santa Tecla during the gang crackdown in July 2022In 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 112 Bukele also warned Salvadoran parents to keep their children away from involvement with gangs as it would lead to prison or death 113 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 114 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 115 116 In total Legislative Assembly has extended the state of emergency by 30 days seventeen times 117 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 118 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 119 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 120 In early June 2022 Amnesty International stated that the government has committed massive human rights violations including torture against those incarcerated 121 and stating that 2 percent of the country s population have been incarcerated and that there have been 18 deaths in custody 122 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 123 External video nbsp Bukele s news conference on the murders of 3 police officersOn 28 June 2022 three police officers of the National Civil Police were killed by MS 13 gang members in a shootout in Santa Ana 124 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 125 Similarly on 13 July 2022 a group of soldiers was attacked by 10 gang members in Nueva Concepcion one of which 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 126 127 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 128 The prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center and located in Tecoluca CECOT 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 129 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 130 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 mention gang affiliation and comparing this to the removal and banning of swastikas in Germany after WWII 131 Politicians across Latin America in countries such as Chile Colombia Costa Rica Guatemala Honduras Ecuador and Peru have implemented or have called for the implementation of security policies similar to those implemented by Bukele 132 Accusations of corruption in government edit See also Corruption in El Salvador Bukele founded the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador CICIES es on 6 September 2019 133 The institution s purpose is to combat a variety of crimes including drug trafficking corruption and white collar crimes 133 He also established an anti corruption unit within the National Civil Police PNC which would cooperate directly with CICIES 133 On 17 May 2021 the United States named current and former ministers and aides as being corrupt 134 Some of those officials were Rogelio Rivas Guillermo Gallegos Jose Luis Merino Sigfrido Reyes and Carolina Recinos 134 135 Following the report the United States diverted funding to El Salvador away from government institutions instead giving funding to civil society groups 136 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 137 138 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 138 On 30 October 2021 Bukele and Nuevas Ideas accused two deputies of the legislative assembly Jose Ilofio Garcia 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 Garcia a vocal opponent of Bukele s presidency 139 140 An audio recording of the two deputies allegedly recorded a meeting between the deputies Garcia 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 141 Both deputies were subsequently ousted from Nuevas Ideas amidst an ongoing investigation into the incident 139 The U S embassy denied the allegations made by Bukele and Nuevas Ideas stating that none of its representatives were on the audio recording 142 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 143 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 143 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 143 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 144 Foreign policy edit See also List of international trips made by Nayib Bukele Between 5 June 2019 and 22 December 2019 Bukele served as the president pro tempore of the Central American Integration System SICA 145 146 147 Bukele is a proponent of Central American reunification 148 149 Bukele considers Nicolas Maduro the president of Venezuela Daniel Ortega the president of Nicaragua and Juan Orlando Hernandez the former president of Honduras to be dictators 150 He refused to recognize the presidency of Manuel Merino in Peru in November 2020 describing his government as putschist 151 Bukele and the Legislative Assembly denounced the results of the 2021 Nicaraguan general election which have widely been seen by several governments as fraudulent 143 On 15 June 2019 Bukele withdrew El Salvador s recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic SADR and the Polisario Front in favor of improved relations with Morocco 152 Relations with the United States edit nbsp Bukele with U S President Donald Trump in September 2019 nbsp Bukele and U S Secretary of State Mike PompeoSee also El Salvador United States relations 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 153 He later confirmed on 28 October 2019 that the United States was continuing TPS for Salvadorans 154 In June 2019 Bukele stated that his government would no longer recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela instead recognizing Juan Guaido as Venezuela s legitimate president amidst Venezuela s presidential crisis 155 The action was welcomed by Ronald D Johnson the United States ambassador to El Salvador 155 On 3 November 2019 he expelled Venezuelan diplomats who were appointed by Maduro from El Salvador 155 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 156 In February 2021 Bukele arrived in the United States to meet U S President Joe Biden but Biden refused to meet Bukele 157 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 158 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 159 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 160 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 161 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 162 Relations with China edit See also China El Salvador relations nbsp Bukele with Xi JinpingBefore becoming president Bukele accused China of meddling in Latin American politics especially after El Salvador withdrew recognition of Taiwan In 2018 however Felix Ulloa Bukele s vice president has stated that El Salvador would not restore relations with Taiwan 163 In December 2019 Bukele signed a gigantic infrastructure agreement with China for an unknown amount 163 Bukele met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China in December 2019 164 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 165 Other bilateral relations edit Other world leaders Bukele has met with include Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in November 2019 166 Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei in January 2020 167 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in January 2022 168 and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in May 2022 169 Additionally Bukele met Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari the Qatari minister of state on the day of his inauguration on 1 June 2019 170 and Saad Sherida al Kaabi the Qatari minister of energy in Qatar in December 2019 171 Bukele met Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani the emir of Qatar in El Salvador on 13 September 2023 172 2024 re election campaign edit 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 173 174 A few days later on 3 September 2021 the 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 175 176 The court ruling allows Bukele to run for re election in the 2024 general election 175 The Supreme Electoral Court accepted the court s ruling 176 External video nbsp 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 176 The ruling was also condemned by the U S government as stated by Jean Elizabeth Manes the charge d affaires of the United States to El Salvador claiming that the ruling was clearly contrary to the Salvadoran constitution 176 177 According the Manes the ruling was a direct result of the legislature replacing the judges of the Supreme Court in May 2021 Jose 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 177 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 178 179 180 Constitutional lawyers criticized his announcement stating that presidential re election violates at least four articles of the country s constitution 181 Polling conducted after his announcement indicate that around 90 percent of Salvadorans would support Bukele s re election campaign 182 183 nbsp Bukele registering his 2024 presidential candidacy with the TSEOn 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 60 184 On 7 June 2023 the Legislative Assembly passed his approval to reduce the seats in the Legislative Assembly 185 On 26 June 2023 Bukele and Ulloa officially registered their pre candidate statuses with Nuevas Ideas to run as president and vice president respectively 186 On 9 July 2023 Nuevas Ideas officially nominated Bukele and Ulloa as their presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively 187 188 On 26 October 2023 Nuevas Ideas officially initiated the process to register Bukele and Ulloa s candidacies the last possible day to do so 189 On 3 November 2023 the TSE officially registered their candidacies 190 amidst various requests made to the TSE to reject Bukele s candidacy 191 192 193 194 195 Presidential approval rating edit Main article Opinion polling on the Nayib Bukele presidency Despite being described as an autocrat 196 197 a caudillo 173 198 an authoritarian 199 200 201 and a strongman 196 202 203 and despite proclaiming himself as the Dictator of El Salvador 204 the coolest dictator in the world 205 and the Emperor of El Salvador by way of irony by the accusations 206 Bukele has retained a high approval rating throughout his presidency 103 207 making him the most popular president in Salvadoran history 208 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 103 Personal life editFamily edit nbsp Bukele with his wife Gabriela Rodriguez and their daughter LaylaBukele was born into a Christian household although his father converted to Islam later in life 209 As the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother Bukele s religious beliefs were a controversial subject in the 2019 election 210 with an image surfacing showing Bukele praying at the mosque in Mexico City 209 In February 2018 The Times of Israel published an image of Bukele in deep reflection at the Western Wall in Jerusalem s Old City 17 Bukele has three younger brothers Karim Yusef and Ibrajim as well as four half sisters and two half brothers on his father s side of the family 211 Bukele has publicly stated he considers himself a believer in God first rather than religion 17 212 In a 2015 interview he 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 17 213 He married Gabriela Rodriguez a psychologist and educator on 6 December 2014 214 In 2018 Bukele told the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat that Rodriguez has Jewish Sephardic blood 17 The couple has one child named Layla who was born during Bukele s presidency on 15 August 2019 215 The couple s second child Aminah on 8 November 2023 216 Cultural activities edit Bukele has promoted surfing as a part of El Salvador s tourism market El Salvador hosted the 2021 ISA World Surfing Games and he confirmed El Salvador will also host the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games 217 In January 2023 Bukele announced that El Salvador would host the Miss Universe at the end of the year 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 218 Political views editBukele s political views have sometimes been referred to by some journalists as the ideology of Bukelism 219 220 221 Bukele has been compared to Donald Trump for his style of government rhetoric and criticism of the press 222 223 224 Public transport edit nbsp Bukele and Mexican architect Fernando Romero viewing a model of the Bitcoin City airport 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 225 226 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 227 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 Union 228 Social issues edit Bukele has stated that he opposes abortion Initially accepting of exceptions in cases of rape incest and when the mother s life is at risk Bukele later came out against any exceptions during his presidency 229 Bukele has stated I think in the end in the future we re going to realize that abortion is a great genocide that we ve committed 230 Bukele has stated that he is opposed to same sex marriage and believes marriage is between a man and woman 230 In September 2021 Bukele stated that the Legislative Assembly would not decriminalize abortion legalize same sex marriage or legalize euthanasia in any potential constitutional reforms 231 Emigration edit In an interview with Fox News Tucker Carlson Bukele attributed mass emigration from Central America to the United States to the region s lack of economic opportunity and lack of security and described the status quo as immoral arguing that emigration not only strains the United States but also impedes domestic efforts to improve living conditions in El Salvador 232 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 233 Depictions in popular culture editBukele was listed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of 2021 234 A character inspired by Bukele called Nashim Bupele appeared on the Korean drama Becoming Witch In the show s seventh episode one of the characters mentioned that he is a personal friend of Nashim Bupele briefly showing his image and how El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin its legal tender Bukele ironized the drama by describing the actor as a questionable choice 235 Electoral history editYear Office Type Party Main opponent Party Votes for Bukele Result SwingTotal P 2012 Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan General FMLN CD Tomas Rodriguez ARENA 2 862 51 67 1st N A Won Gain2015 Mayor of San Salvador General FMLN PSP Edwin Zamora ARENA PCN 89 164 50 27 1st N A Won Gain2019 President of El Salvador General GANA Carlos Calleja ARENA PCN PDC DS 1 434 856 53 10 1st N A Won Gain2024 President of El Salvador General NI To be determinedNotes edit Bukele ran for president under the political affiliation of Grand Alliance for National Unity GANA as Nuevas Ideas NI had not yet been registered by the Supreme Electoral Court Carlos Calleja was supported by a coalition of the Nationalist Republican Alliance ARENA National Coalition Party PCN Christian Democratic Party PDC and Salvadoran Democracy DS References editCitations edit El Salvador murder rate plummets study says gangs may have informal pact with government Reuters 8 July 2020 Retrieved 16 December 2021 Brigida Anna Catherine 3 March 2021 El Salvador s Homicide Rate Hit a Historic Low in 2020 Foreign Policy Retrieved 16 December 2021 El Salvador United States Department of State Retrieved 2 October 2023 Kitroeff Natalie Volpe Daniele 9 April 2023 El Salvador Decimated Its Ruthless Gangs But at What Cost The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 13 April 2023 El Salvador murders plummet by over half in 2022 amid gang crackdown Reuters 3 January 2023 Retrieved 13 April 2023 El Salvador Is Imprisoning People at Triple the Rate of the US Bloomberg com 12 September 2023 Retrieved 30 October 2023 Natalie Kitroeff 28 February 2021 Salvador s Leader Combative but Popular May Tighten Grip in Elections The New York Times Retrieved 29 December 2021 Salvadorans can t get enough of him President Nayib Bukele who enjoys an approval rating around 90 percent in polls is expected to expand his mandate even further in legislative elections on Sunday that could deliver a decisive victory to his party Nelson Renteria 15 December 2021 Majority of Salvadorans Approve of Bukele s Leadership Poll Shows U S News amp World Report Retrieved 29 December 2021 A strong majority of Salvadorans approve of President Nayib Bukele s government despite controversies over his policies and U S sanctions on his cabinet according to a poll by the investigative unit of local newspaper La Prensa published Wednesday a b Vivanco Jose Miguel Pappier Juan 21 May 2021 The U S can Stop El Salvador s Slide to Authoritarianism Time to Act hrw org Human Rights Watch Retrieved 7 June 2021 Melendez Sanchez Manuel July 2021 Latin America Erupts Millennial Authoritarianism in El Salvador Journal of Democracy Retrieved 20 April 2022 Goodfriend Hilary 8 April 2022 El Salvador s Nayib Bukele Is Yet Again Ramping Up His Authoritarian Violence Jacobin Retrieved 20 April 2022 Neuman Scott 10 February 2020 Troops Occupy El Salvador s Legislature To Back President s Crime Package NPR Retrieved 16 December 2021 Crisis brewing as El Salvador s Congress votes out top judges Al Jazeera 2 May 2021 Retrieved 12 April 2022 Critican pretension de reeleccion de Bukele Noticias de El Salvador La Prensa Grafica Informate con la verdad in Spanish Retrieved 6 December 2022 a b c d e f g h Bukele Nayib Biografia Nayib Bukele Nayib Bukele com in Spanish Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 Retrieved 19 April 2015 a b c d e f g h i j k l Galdamez Eddie 20 February 2020 Nayib Buoele President of El Salvador from 2019 to 2024 ElSavladorInfo Retrieved 20 March 2021 a b c d e f g Ahren Raphael 7 February 2019 His Dad was an Imam His Wife has Jewish Roots Meet El Salvador s New Leader The Times of Israel Archived from the original on 27 June 2019 Retrieved 16 February 2020 Angeline Montoya 5 July 2023 Le Salvador sous l emprise du systeme Bukele Le Monde in French Retrieved 20 October 2023 son pere Armando Bukele Kattan descendant de chretiens de Bethleem en Palestine Nayib Bukele el Capitalista mas Popular de la Izquierda Salvadorena Nayib Bukele the Most Popular Capitalist of the Salvadoran Left Contrapunto com sv Archived from the original on 14 October 2018 Retrieved 15 October 2018 Labrador Gabriel 20 August 2014 El FMLN Abre la Puerta Grande a Nayib Bukele The FMLN Open the Grand Door for Nayib Bukele El Faro Retrieved 26 July 2017 Yamaha Motor El Salvador Yamaha Motors El Salvador 26 July 2017 Retrieved 26 July 2017 Centro Nacional de Registros Registro de Comercio National Center of Registers Commercial Registries PDF Archived from the original PDF on 20 June 2019 Retrieved 3 April 2020 Elecciones El Salvador 2012 Concejos Municipales La Libertad Nuevo Cuscatlan El Salvador Elections 2012 Municipal Councils La Libertad Nuevo Cuscatlan www tse gob sv Retrieved 15 October 2018 Rodriguez Guillermo 4 January 2019 El Alcalde Solidario que Quiere Gobernar El Salvador Uniendo Izquierda y Derecha The Solidarity Mayor Who Wants to Govern El Salvador Uniting Left and Right El Espanol in Spanish Retrieved 7 June 2021 Nayib Bukele Inaugura Boulevard en Nuevo Cuscatlan Nayib Bukele Inaugurates Boulevard in Nuevo Cuscatlan Laprensa Grafica in Spanish 21 January 2015 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Roque Baldovinos 2021 p 239 Resultados de Concejos Municipales TSE Municipal Council Results TSE tse gob sv Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 a b Devuelven Nombre a Bulevares Return Name to Boulevards La Prensa Grafica in Spanish 2 May 2015 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Brockett Charles D 21 February 2005 Political Movements and Violence in Central America Cambridge University Press p 240 ISBN 9780521600552 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Carroll Rory 19 June 2008 Call to Honor El Salvador s Rescuer of Jews after War Role Rediscovered The Guardian Retrieved 7 June 2021 El corazon historico de San Salvador vuelve a latir retrieved 29 July 2022 RECORRIDO POR MERCADO CUSCATLAN retrieved 29 July 2022 President Tsai Meets Mayor Nayib Bukele of San Salvador Taiwanese Presidential Office 23 February 2017 Salvadorans Elect Friend of Israel as Their Next President Israel Hayom 5 February 2019 El Salvador s New President is a Palestinian and Pro Israel Christians United for Israel 6 February 2019 Nayib Bukele Entrego Obras en el Corazon del Centro Historico de San Salvador Nayib Bukele Delivered Works in the Heart of the Historic Center of San Salvador Canal 12 in Spanish 27 April 2018 Retrieved 7 June 2021 FMLN Expulsa a Bukele del Partido FMLN Expels Bukele from the Party El Diario de Hoy Retrieved 11 October 2017 Nayib Bukele Expulsado del FMLN por Estas Razones Nayib Bukele Expelled from the FMLN for These Reasons La Prensa Grafica Retrieved 11 October 2017 Rauda Zablah Nelson Arauz Sergio Valencia Roberto 7 October 2017 Medardo Gonzalez No Podemos Creer en Alguien que esta con Nosotros Solo por Interes Electorero Medardo Gonzalez We Cannot Believe in Someone who is with Us Only for Electoral Interest El Faro in Spanish El Salvador s New Savior Upside Down World Upside Down World 20 November 2017 Retrieved 10 December 2017 Roque Baldovinos 2021 pp 240 241 El Futuro de Nuevas Ideas y Situacion de la Alcaldia The Future of New Ideas and Situation of the Mayorship Nayib Bukele 14 May 2018 Retrieved 15 May 2018 Esposito Anthony 18 December 2018 El Salvador Populist Holds Lead Weeks Ahead of Presidential Vote Reuters Retrieved 5 February 2019 Palumbo Gene Malkin Elisabeth 3 February 2019 Nayib Bukele an Outsider Candidate Claims Victory in El Salvador Election The New York Times Retrieved 5 February 2019 Outsider Wins El Salvador Presidency Breaking Two Party System CBC Thomson Reuters 3 February 2019 a b Estos son los Funcionarios que Integraran el Gabinete de Nayib Bukele These are the Officials that will Integrate the Cabinet of Nayib Bukele El Salvador com in Spanish 1 June 2019 Retrieved 4 September 2020 Brigida Anna Cat 10 February 2020 Constitutional crisis in El Salvador over Bukele s security plan AlJazeera Retrieved 7 June 2020 Crisis en El Salvador Cuales son los Motivos de la Fuerte Tension entre el Presidente Nayib Bukele y el Congreso Crisis in El Salvador What are the Motives of the Strong Tension between President Nayib Bukele and Congress BBC News in Spanish 10 February 2020 Retrieved 7 June 2020 a b c Dolzall Tom 11 February 2020 Assembly Standoff Leads to Crisis in El Salvador Defense amp Security Monitor Retrieved 7 June 2020 Papadovassilakis Alex 5 August 2019 El Salvador s Peaceful Month Not Due to Bukele Security Plan InSight Crime Retrieved 9 February 2021 Vivanco Jose Miguel 14 February 2020 President Bukele Brute Force Is Not the Way Forward for El Salvador Human Rights Watch Retrieved 7 June 2021 Garcia Jacobo 10 February 2020 Si Fuera un Dictador Habria Tomado el Control de Todo el Gobierno Anoche If I was a Dictator I Would have Taken Control of Everything El Pais in Spanish Retrieved 7 June 2021 Agren David 16 February 2020 Nayib Bukele s military stunt raises alarming memories in El Salvador The Guardian Retrieved 23 February 2020 El Salvador President Accused of Attempted Coup Today rtl 11 February 2020 Heavily Armed Police and Soldiers Enter El Salvador Parliament BBC News 10 February 2020 Amaya Alba Miriam 8 February 2021 El Impacto del 9F en la Cultura Democratica de El Salvador The Impact of 9F on the Democratic Culture of El Salvador DW in Spanish Retrieved 9 February 2021 El Salvador Parliament Denounces President s Attempted Coup BBC News 11 February 2020 Retrieved 9 February 2021 EE UU Considera Inaceptable Ingreso de Tropas al Congreso de El Salvador US Considers Entry of Troops to the Congress of El Salvador Unacceptable DW in Spanish 12 February 2020 Retrieved 9 February 2021 a b c Crisis Brewing as El Salvador s Congress Votes out Top Judges Al Jazeera 2 May 2021 Archived from the original on 17 May 2021 Retrieved 7 June 2021 El Salvador s President Launched a Self Coup Watch for Creeping Corruption and Authoritarianism Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved 20 May 2021 Finnegan Connor 4 May 2021 El Salvador s President Pushes Ahead with Power Grab Despite US Condemnation ABC News Archived from the original on 17 May 2021 Retrieved 17 May 2021 US Concerned over Removal of top Salvadoran Judges BBC News 3 May 2021 Retrieved 16 December 2021 Finnegan Connor 4 May 2021 El Salvador s President Pushes Ahead with Power Grab Despite US Condemnation ABC News Retrieved 17 May 2021 Reaction What Bukele s Power Grab Means for El Salvador America s Quarterly 3 May 2021 Retrieved 17 May 2021 El Salvador Situation COVID19 WHO World Health Organization Retrieved 7 June 2021 a b c El Salvador Police Abuses in Covid 19 Response Human Rights Watch 15 April 2020 Retrieved 7 June 2021 a b El Salvador Inhumane Prison Lockdown Treatment Human Rights Watch 29 April 2020 Retrieved 7 June 2021 a b Arias Tatiana 27 May 2020 Salvadoran Leader Says He Takes Hydroxychloroquine CNN Retrieved 7 June 2021 Reyes Scarlett 22 June 2020 Pandemia El Salvador Inauguro el Hospital Mas Grande America Latina Pandemic El Salvador Inaugurated the Largest Hospital in Latin America La Notta in Spanish Retrieved 7 June 2021 a b El Salvador Destaco en 2020 por la Corrupcion Durante la Pandemia El Salvador Highlighted in 2020 for Corruption During the Pandemic FACTum in Spanish 28 January 2021 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Caceres Gabriela 10 November 2020 Fiscalia Arranca Investigacion Contra el Gobierno Bukele por los Contratos Irregulares de la Pandemia El Faro in Spanish Retrieved 2 February 2021 a b Aleman Marcos 13 May 2021 El Salvador Donates Vaccine to Desperate Honduras Towns AP Retrieved 7 June 2021 Bukele Nayib 19 June 2021 Second Donation of Vaccines of Honduras Twitter in Spanish Retrieved 20 June 2021 Palencia Gustavo 18 June 2021 Mexico to Donate 154 100 Doses of AstraZeneza Vaccine to Honduras Reuters Retrieved 20 June 2021 Esposito Anthony 5 June 2021 El Salvador s President Says Will Send Bill to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender Reuters Retrieved 7 June 2021 Bitcoin El Salvador makes Cryptocurrency Legal Tender BBC 9 June 2021 Retrieved 9 June 2021 a b Esposito Anthony 24 June 2021 Bitcoin to Become legal Tender in El Salvador on 7 September Reuters Retrieved 24 June 2021 World Bank Rejects El Salvador Request for Bitcoin Help BBC 17 June 2021 Retrieved 21 June 2021 Renteria Nelson Kalia Shubham 6 September 2021 Maler Sandra ed El Salvador Holds 400 Bitcoin Price Jumps Reuters Retrieved 6 September 2021 El Salvador Becomes First Country to Adopt Bitcoin as National Currency The Wall Street Journal 7 September 2021 Retrieved 7 September 2021 a b c Silver Katie 8 September 2021 Bitcoin Crashes on First Day as El Salvador s Legal Tender BBC Retrieved 8 September 2021 Esposito Anthony 7 September 2021 O Brien Rosalba ed Crypto Platform Bitso Working with El Salvador on Chivo Digital Wallet Reuters Retrieved 8 September 2021 Bateman Tom 16 September 2021 Thousands Protest Against El Salvador s President and Bitcoin Law euronews Retrieved 16 December 2021 El Salvador Bitcoin City Planned at Base of Conchagua Volcano BBC News 21 November 2021 Retrieved 21 November 2021 Faiola Anthony 26 January 2022 He Trades Bitcoin Naked El Salvador is Paying the Price The Washington Post Retrieved 26 January 2022 IMF Urges El Salvador to Strip Bitcoin s Legal Tender Status www aljazeera com 25 January 2022 Retrieved 26 January 2022 Tully Shawn 20 January 2022 El Salvador s plan to create the first Bitcoin powered nation is tanking the economy and is a mess by every measure Retrieved 22 November 2022 El Salvador s Big Bitcoin Gamble Backfires to Deepen Debt Woes Bloomberg com 15 June 2022 Retrieved 19 July 2022 Historic Cascade of Defaults Is Coming for Emerging Markets Bloomberg 7 July 2022 Retrieved 19 July 2022 Renteria Nelson 27 July 2022 El Salvador says it has 560 mln for Partial Debt Buyback Reuters Retrieved 1 October 2022 Cuthbertson Anthony 28 September 2022 Pound Crash Bitcoin Loving El Salvador President Mocks Bank of England The Independent Retrieved 1 October 2022 a b Calderon Beatriz Aleman Francisco 20 June 2019 Lo que se Sabe del Plan Control Territorial Implementado este Jueves por el Gobierno What We know of the Territorial Control Plan Implemented this Thursday by the Government Laprensa Grafica in Spanish Retrieved 7 June 2021 Victims of Intentional Homicide 1990 2018 United Nations 2018 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Homicide rate in El Salvador from 2014 to 2020 Statista 1 January 2021 Retrieved 6 December 2021 Resultados Exitosos del Plan Control Territorial Successful Results of the Territorial Control Plan Diario la Huella in Spanish 23 January 2020 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Romero Teresa 15 February 2022 Homicide Rate in El Salvador from 2014 to 2021 Statista Retrieved 19 April 2022 a b InSight Crime s 2021 Homicide Round Up InSight Crime 1 February 2022 Retrieved 19 April 2022 Gagne David 14 January 2016 InSight Crime s 2015 Homicide Round up InSight Crime Retrieved 19 April 2022 Renteria Nelson 3 January 2023 El Salvador Murders Plummet by Over Half in 2022 Amid Gang Crackdown Reuters San Salvador El Salvador Archived from the original on 3 January 2023 Retrieved 5 January 2023 Salvador Le President Bukele Aurait Aussi Negocie Avec les Gangs Salvador President Bukele allegedly negotiated with gangs Courrier International in French 8 September 2020 Daugherty Arron 8 February 2016 Former El Salvador President Denies Giving Perks to Gangs InSight Crime Retrieved 7 June 2021 Delcid Merlin 4 September 2020 Nayib Bukele Niega Supuesto Pacto con Pandillas para Reducir Homicidios en El Salvador Nayib Bukele Denies Alleged Pact with Gangs to Reduce Homicides in El Salvador CNN in Spanish a b c Linthicum Kate 16 May 2021 El Salvador s Millennial President is a Man with One Vision Power Los Angeles Times Retrieved 21 June 2021 Homicide Drop in El Salvador Presidential Triumph or Gang Trend InSight Crime 13 August 2020 Retrieved 16 December 2021 Sheridan Mary Beth Brigida Anna Catherine U S Accuses El Salvador of Cutting Secret Deal with MS 13 to Tamp Down Killings The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved 16 December 2021 a b c McFarland Stephen G 15 December 2021 From Bad to Worse Nayib Bukele s Split with Washington Americas Quarterly Retrieved 16 December 2021 a b Abi Habib Maria Avelar Bryan 27 March 2022 Explosion of Gang Violence Grips El Salvador Setting Record The New York Times Retrieved 4 April 2022 Pozzebon Stefano 27 March 2022 El Salvador Proclaims State of Emergency as Homicides Soar CNN Retrieved 4 April 2022 El Salvador Broad State of Emergency Risks Abuse Human Rights Watch 29 March 2022 Retrieved 4 April 2022 Que es un Regimen de Excepcion El Salvador What is the Regime of Exception El Salvador Alianza Americas in Spanish 27 April 2022 Retrieved 14 July 2022 Guzman Jessica 25 July 2023 Asi Procesaran a los 71 976 Detenidos en el Regimen de Excepcion This Is How They Will Process the 71 976 Detained in the State of Exception El Mundo in Spanish Retrieved 25 July 2023 Bukele Nayib nayibbukele 7 April 2022 Nuevos soldados y policias para la GuerraContraPandillas New soldiers and police officers for the WarAgainstGang Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 2 May 2022 via Twitter More than 30 500 Arrested in El Salvador Gang Crackdown Al Jazeera 16 May 2022 Retrieved 16 May 2022 Bukele Nayib nayibbukele 23 April 2022 En este momento estoy convocando al Consejo de Ministros para que solicite a la Asamblea Legislativa la ampliacion del REGIMEN DE EXCEPCIoN por 30 dias mas In this moment I m summoning the Council of Ministers to solicit the Legislative Assembly to extend the STATE OF EMERGENCY for 30 more days Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 24 April 2022 via Twitter El Salvador Extends State of Emergency to Curb Gang Violence Al Jazeera 25 April 2022 Retrieved 25 April 2022 El Salvador Extends State of Emergency Associated Press 24 April 2022 Retrieved 30 April 2022 Villarroel Gabriela 10 August 2023 Asamblea Aprueba 17a Prorroga al Regimen de Excepcion en El Salvador Assembly Approves 17th Extension to the State of Exception La Prensa Grafica in Spanish Retrieved 10 August 2023 CIESCA Central America CIESCA OFICIAL 30 May 2022 El 90 13 de los salvadorenos aprueba el regimen de excepcion y la lucha en contra de las pandillas 90 13 of Salvadorans approve the state of emergency and the war against the gangs Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 30 May 2022 via Twitter UN Rights Office Raises Concerns about El Salvador Gang Crackdown Al Jazeera 5 April 2022 Retrieved 5 April 2022 El Salvador Evidence of Serious Abuse in State of Emergency Human Rights Watch 2 May 2022 Retrieved 2 May 2022 El Salvador Committing Massive Rights violations Amnesty Says Al Jazeera 2 June 2022 Retrieved 5 June 2022 Delcid Merlin Suarez Karol Fox Kara 2 June 2022 Salvadoran Authorities are Committing Massive Human Rights Violations with Nearly 2 of the Country Detained Amnesty Alleges CNN Rights Groups Criticize El Salvador s Mass Gang Roundups Associated Press 2 May 2022 Retrieved 3 May 2022 Phillips Tom 29 June 2022 El Salvador to Escalate its Security Crackdown After Death of Police Officers The Guardian Retrieved 14 July 2022 Renteria Nelson Kylie Madry 28 June 2022 Garcia David Alire Birsel Robert eds Salvadoran Presidents Vows Tougher War on Gangs After Police Killed Reuters San Salvador El Salvador Retrieved 14 July 2022 Nayib Bukele nayibbukele 13 July 2022 Esta manana 10 terroristas emboscaron a nuestros soldados en Nueva Concepcion Chalatenango En el enfrentamiento un soldado resulto herido de gravedad lastimosamente murio en el Hospital Militar This morning 10 terrorists ambushed our soldiers in Nueva Concepcion Chalatenango In the encounter one soldier was gravely injured and sadly died at the Military Hospital Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 14 July 2022 via Twitter Nayib Bukele nayibbukele 13 July 2022 Se ordena que todas las banderas en nuestro pais sean izadas a media asta por 3 dias en honor a nuestro heroe quien hoy dio su vida para proteger y darle seguridad a los salvadorenos It is ordered that all flags in our country be flown at half mast for 3 days in honor of our hero who today gave his life to protect and give security to Salvadorans Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 14 July 2022 via Twitter Agren David 23 August 2022 Written at Mexico City El Salvador Builds 40 000 Inmate Mega Prison in War Against Gangs Financial Times London Retrieved 23 August 2022 Renteria Nelson Kinosian Sarah 1 February 2023 Maler Sandra ed El Salvador Opens 40 000 Person Prison as Arrests Soar in Gang Crackdown Reuters Retrieved 2 February 2023 El Salvador Destroys Gang Members Gravestones France 24 3 November 2022 Retrieved 3 November 2022 Bukele Nayib nayibbukele 10 November 2022 Por que destruimos las lapidas en las tumbas de los pandilleros Why do we destroy the headstones of the tombs of gang members Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 10 November 2022 via Twitter Linthicum Kate 25 July 2023 Inside the Growing Cult of El Salvador s Nayib Bukele Latin America s Political Star Los Angeles Times Mexico City Mexico Archived from the original on 25 July 2023 Retrieved 15 August 2023 a b c Como Funcionara la CICIES How will CICIES Function La Prensa Grafica in Spanish 7 September 2019 Retrieved 7 June 2021 a b Renteria Nelson Hesson Ted 17 May 2021 U S names El Salvador President s Aide on Corrupt Officials List Reuters Retrieved 8 June 2021 Goodman Joshua 18 May 2021 US Report Allies of El Salvador s President Deemed Corrupt Sentinel Colorado Retrieved 8 June 2021 Aleman Marcos 21 May 2021 US Steers El Salvador Funding Away from Government Reuters Retrieved 8 June 2021 Villaran Julio 4 June 2021 PNC Captura al Ernesto Muyshondt por Apropiacion Indebida de Retenciones en Perjuicio de la Hacienda Publica PNC Captures Ernesto Muyshondt for Misappropriation of Retentions to the Detriment of the Public Finance La Pagina in Spanish Retrieved 4 June 2021 a b El Salvador Ends Anti Corruption Accord with OAS Dismaying U S Reuters 4 June 2021 Retrieved 8 June 2021 a b El Salvador Partido Oficialista Separa a Dos Diputados por Conspiracion El Salvador Party Officially Separates from Two Deputies for Conspiracy DW in Spanish 30 October 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2021 Nuevas Ideas Separara de la Fraccion a los Dos Diputados Implicados en la Conspiracion Nuevas Ideas Separates the Two Deputies Implicated in the Conspiracy from the Fraction Diario La Huella in Spanish 30 October 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2021 Nuevas Ideas en Crisis por Supuesta Conspiracion para Dividir su Bancada Legislativa Nuevas Ideas in Crisis for Alleged Conspiracy to Divide its Legislative Caucus Contra Punto in Spanish 1 November 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2021 Statement from U S Embassy Spokesperson US Embassy gov Embassy of the United States San Salvador 31 October 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2021 a b c d Miranda Wilfredo 11 November 2021 Bukele Presenta una Ley para Acallar las Voces Criticas en El Salvador Bukele Presents a Law to Silence Critical Voices in El Salvador El Pais Retrieved 12 November 2021 El Salvador Critics Blocked on Social Media Human Rights Watch 16 December 2021 Retrieved 16 December 2021 LIII Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Central American Integration System SICA The San Pedro Sun 8 June 2019 Retrieved 14 July 2022 LIV Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Central American Integration System SICA The San Pedro Sun 24 December 2019 Retrieved 14 July 2022 Guatemala to Hand over SICA Pro Tempore Presidency to El Salvador newsinamerica com Periodico Digital 13 June 2019 Retrieved 14 July 2022 Miranda Wilfredo 24 July 2021 El Sueno Expansionista de Bukele El Presidente Salvadoreno Promueve su Marca en Centroamerica The Expansionist Dream of Bukele The Salvadoran President Promotes his Image in Central America El Pais in Spanish Retrieved 31 July 2022 El Gobierno del Presidente Nayib Bukele Impulsa Agenda para Fortalecer la Integracion Centroamericana The Government of President Nayib Bukele Promotes Agenda to Strengthen Central American Integration presidencia gob sv in Spanish Government of El Salvador 22 September 2020 Retrieved 31 July 2022 El Gobierno de Maduro Pierde Otro Aliado en Latinoamerica The Government of Maduro Loses Another Ally in Latin America El Nacional in Spanish 5 February 2019 President de El Salvador No Reconocemos al Gobierno Golpista de Merino President of El Salvador We will not Recognize the Merino s Putschist Government La Republica in Spanish 15 November 2020 Retrieved 8 September 2022 Sahara Le Salvador Retire sa Reconnaissance de la RASD Sahara El Salvador Withdraws Recognition of the SADR Le Desk in French 15 June 2019 Retrieved 16 October 2022 Cohen Luc 26 September 2019 El Salvador President Calls on Trump to Keep Protected Status Program for Migrants Reuters Retrieved 7 June 2021 Presidente Nayib Bukele Confirma que Continua en Vigencia el TPS para Salvadorenos en EEUU President Nayib Bukele Confirms that the TPS for Salvadorans in the United States Remains in Force Diario la Huela in Spanish 28 October 2019 Retrieved 7 June 2021 a b c Venezuela Crisis El Salvador Expels Maduro s Diplomats BBC News 3 November 2019 Retrieved 7 June 2021 Bukele Nayib nayibbukele 7 March 2022 El Gobierno de Estados Unidos decide quien es el malo y quien es el bueno y tambien cuando el malo se vuelve bueno y el bueno se vuelve malo Lo peor de todo es que miles de millones de personas siguen comprando ese discurso y tomandolo como verdad The US government decides who is bad and who is good and also when bad turns good and good turns bad Worst of all is that billions of people continue to buy that speech and take it as truth Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 12 March 2022 via Twitter Biden Officials Turn Down Unannounced Visit with El Salvador Pres Nayib Bukele NBC News 9 February 2021 Retrieved 8 September 2022 Megerian Chris Goodman Joshua 9 June 2022 Salvadoran Leader Rebuffs Blinken Effort to Bolster Summit Associated Press Los Angeles California Retrieved 10 August 2022 Wallace Danielle 10 August 2022 El Salvador President Rips FBI Trump Raid Questions what US Gov t Would Say if His Police Targeted Candidates Fox News Retrieved 10 August 2022 Kahn Carrie 2 April 2021 Tweet For Tweet El Salvador s President And U S Congresswoman Spar Over Migrants NPR Retrieved 10 November 2022 Gstalter Morgan 28 May 2021 House Democrat Says She Sleeps with Gun Nearby After Clashing with El Salvador s President The Hill Retrieved 10 November 2022 Jimenez Soudi 10 November 2022 La Congresista Californiana Norma Torres Acusa al Presidente de El Salvador de Interferencia Electoral California Congresswoman Norma Torres Accuses the President of El Salvador of Electoral Interference Los Angeles Times in Spanish Retrieved 10 November 2022 a b Everington Keoni 4 December 2019 Former Taiwan Ally El Salvador Signs Gigantic Infrastructure Deal with China Taiwan News Retrieved 13 November 2021 Bermudez Angel 4 December 2019 Bukele Visita China El Historico Acercamiento de El Salvador a Pekin y la Gigantesca Cooperacion que Recibe a Cambio Bukele Visits China El Salvador s Historic Approach to Beijing and the Gigantic Cooperation He Receives in Return BBC in Spanish Retrieved 6 May 2022 Madry Kylie 9 November 2022 China and El Salvador to Begin Free Trade Talks Reuters Retrieved 9 November 2022 Japan Pressed El Salvador to Prevent Chinese Influence Over Port Japan Times 30 December 2019 Retrieved 14 July 2022 Guatemalan President Offers El Salvador the Chance to Build a Port in Guatemalan Waters Reuters 27 January 2020 Retrieved 6 May 2022 Turkey El Salvador Sign 6 Agreements During Bukele Visit Daily Sabah 20 January 2022 Retrieved 28 January 2022 Bukele Nayib nayibbukele 6 May 2022 Visita oficial del Presidente Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Official visit of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Tweet in Spanish Retrieved 6 May 2022 via Twitter El Salvador President meets Dr Al Kawari The Peninsula Qatar com 2 June 2019 Retrieved 14 July 2022 President of El Salvador meets Minister of State for Energy The Peninsula Qatar com 13 December 2019 Retrieved 14 July 2022 Erazo Ronald 12 September 2023 El Emir de Catar Llego este Martes a El Salvador Cual es el Motivo de su Visita The Emir of Qatar Arrived in El Salvador This Tuesday What is the Motive Behind His Visit La Prensa Grafica in Spanish Retrieved 15 September 2023 a b Nayib Bukele is Wrecking Democracy in El Salvador The Economist 11 September 2021 Retrieved 9 October 2022 El Salvador s Bitcoin Bro President is Beloved and Dangerous The Economist 9 September 2021 Retrieved 9 October 2022 a b El Salvador Court says Presidents can Serve Two Straight Terms Al Jazeera 4 September 2021 Retrieved 5 September 2021 a b c d Aleman Marcos 5 September 2021 El Salvador Court Drops Ban on Presidential Reelection AP News Retrieved 5 September 2021 a b Renteria Nelson 4 September 2021 Stonestreet John Orlofsky Steve Mallard William eds El Salvador Top Court Opens Door to President s Re Election U S Protests Reuters Retrieved 5 September 2021 Despite Prohibition El Salvador President Bukele Says he will Seek Re Election Reuters 16 September 2022 Retrieved 16 September 2022 Agren David 16 September 2022 El Salvador s President to Run for Re Election Despite Constitutional Ban Financial Times Mexico City Mexico Retrieved 16 September 2022 El Salvador s Bukele Says he will Seek Re Election Despite Ban Al Jazeera 16 September 2022 Retrieved 16 September 2022 Aleman Marcos 16 September 2022 El Salvador President s Reelection Bid Despite Constitutional Ban Draws Strong Reaction Los Angeles Times Retrieved 16 September 2022 America Elects AmericaElige 20 September 2022 Would you vote for the re election of President Nayib Bukele NI conservative if he decides to run Tweet Retrieved 16 October 2022 via Twitter 88 3 de la Poblacion a Favor de Reeleccion de Bukele 88 3 in Favor of Bukele s Re Election Contrapunto com sv in Spanish 19 September 2022 Retrieved 16 October 2022 Velasquez Eugenia 1 June 2023 En Vivo En su Discurso del Cuarto Ano de Gobierno Bukele Presenta Propuesta para Reducir de 262 a 44 Municipios y Diputados a 60 Live In His Speech of Four Years of Government Bukele Presents Proposal to Reduce from 262 to 44 Municipalities and Deputies to 60 El Salvador com in Spanish Retrieved 1 June 2023 Renteria Nelson Madry Kylie 7 June 2023 Berkrot Bill ed El Salvador Slashes Size of Congress Ahead of Elections Reuters San Salvador El Salvador Retrieved 7 June 2023 Campos Gabriel 26 June 2023 Nuevas Ideas Dio a Conocer Inscripcion de Bukele y Ulloa como Precandidatos para Elecciones Presidenciales Nuevas Ideas Made It Known the Registration of Bukele and Ulloa as Pre Candidates for the Presidential Elections La Prensa Grafica in Spanish Retrieved 26 June 2023 Guzman Jessica 9 July 2023 Nuevas Ideas Oficializa a Nayib Bukele como Candidato Presidencial de 2024 Nuevas Ideas Makes Official Nayib Bukele as Presidential Candidate in 2024 El Mundo in Spanish Retrieved 9 July 2023 Sandoval Williams 9 July 2023 Nuevas Ideas Confirma Formula Presidencial Nuevas Ideas Confirms Presidential Formula La Prensa Grafica in Spanish Retrieved 9 July 2023 Penate Susana 28 October 2023 Bukele Pide Inscribirse para la Reeleccion en Medio de Llamados al TSE a no Aceptarla Bukele Asks to Be Registered for Re Election Amid Calls for the TSE to Not Accept It El Diario de Hoy in Spanish Retrieved 28 October 2023 TSE Resuelve Inscribir a Nayib Bukele y Manuel Flores como Candidatos a Presidente TSE Resolves to Register Nayib Bukele and Manuel Flores as Presidential Candidates El Mundo in Spanish 3 November 2023 Retrieved 3 November 2023 Garcia Jessica 24 October 2023 Nuestro Tiempo Insta al TSE a no Inscribir Candidatura Inconstitucional de Bukele Nuestro Tiempo Asks the TSE to Not Register Bukele s Unconstitutional Candidacy El Diario de Hoy in Spanish Retrieved 24 October 2023 Magana Yolanda 27 October 2023 Reiteran Recursos en el TSE Contra Inscripcion de Bukele Luego de la Solicitud del Presidente They Reiterate Resources in the TSE Against Bukele s Registration After the President s Solicitation El Mundo in Spanish Retrieved 27 October 2023 Solorzano Walter Herrera Yelter 27 October 2023 ARENA Pide a TSE Acaten la Constitucion y Rechacen Inscripcion del Presidente Bukele para Reeleccion ARENA Asks the TSE to Abide by the Constitution and Reject President Bukele s Re Election Registration El Mundo in Spanish Retrieved 27 October 2023 Lopez Griselda 1 November 2023 Candidata a Diputada por ARENA Presento Ante el TSE Peticion para Evitar Inscripcion del Presidente Nayib Bukele Deputy Candidate for ARENA Presented a Petition Before the TSE to Void President Nayib Bukele s Registration La Noticia SV in Spanish San Salvador El Salvador Retrieved 1 November 2023 Penate Susana 3 November 2023 Plataforma de Abogados Pide al TSE que no se Admita Candidatura de Bukele Platform of Lawyers as the TSE to Not Admit Bukele s Candidacy El Diario de Hoy in Spanish Retrieved 2 November 2023 a b Beauchamp Zack 8 April 2023 Meet the MAGA Movement s New Favorite Autocrat Vox Retrieved 8 April 2023 O Boyle Brendan 29 April 2020 Behind Nayib Bukele s Shocking Turn Americas Quarterly Retrieved 13 October 2020 Rothschild Daniel M 20 March 2023 The American Right s New Authoritarian Squeeze The UnPopulist Retrieved 8 April 2023 Welle Deutsche El Salvador Nayib Bukele Deploys Troops after Murder Spike Deutsche Welle Retrieved 16 December 2021 Kitroeff Natalie 5 May 2020 Young Leader Vowed Change in El Salvador but Wields Same Heavy Hand The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 13 October 2020 Margolis Mac 15 May 2020 Coronavirus Unmasks El Salvador s Authoritarian in Waiting Bloomberg Retrieved 13 October 2020 Murray Christine Smith Alan 6 March 2023 Inside El Salvador s Mega Prison The Jail Giving Inmates Less Space than Livestock Financial Times Mexico City and London Retrieved 8 March 2023 Freeman Will 16 February 2023 Nayib Bukele s Growing List of Latin American Admirers Americas Quarterly Retrieved 10 March 2023 El Salvador President Changes Twitter Profile to Dictator Associated Press 20 September 2021 Retrieved 21 September 2021 Youkee Mat 26 September 2021 Nayib Bukele calls himself the world s coolest dictator but is he joking The Observer ISSN 0029 7712 Retrieved 12 July 2023 Renteria Nelson 18 October 2021 Thousands in El Salvador join protests against Bukele government Reuters Retrieved 21 October 2021 Galdamez Eddie 22 February 2021 Despite Claims of Authoritarianism President Bukele s Popularity Continues to be Strong in El Salvador Global Voices Retrieved 7 June 2021 Galdamez Eddie 9 March 2022 Nayib Bukele Approval Rating Majority of Salvadorans approve of Bukele elsalvadorinfo net El Salvador Info Retrieved 28 April 2022 a b Polemica por Imagenes de Bukele en Oracion Dentro de una Mezquita Controversy over Images of Bukele in Prayer Inside a Mosque El Mundo in Spanish 8 January 2019 Archived from the original on 12 April 2019 Retrieved 5 February 2019 Rodriguez Martinez Marta Oelsner Natalia 1 February 2019 El Salvador A Millennial Mayor the Favorite to Win the Next Presidential Elections Euro News Retrieved 5 February 2019 Alvarado Jimmy Labrador Gabriel Arauz Sergio 17 June 2020 The Bukele Clan that Rules with Nayib El Faro Retrieved 24 May 2023 Aleman Marcos 30 January 2019 AP Interview El Salvador s leading candidate targets graft The Fresno Bee Archived from the original on 7 February 2019 Retrieved 5 February 2019 Musulman No No es Musulman Nayib Bukele da Aclaraciones sobre su Religion Muslim No He is not a Muslim Nayib Bukele gives Clarifications about his Religion YouTube in Spanish 8 December 2017 Retrieved 20 June 2021 Luna Alejandra 8 December 2014 Fotos Boda de Nayib y Gabriela Photos Wedding of Nayib and Gabriela El Blog in Spanish Archived from the original on 24 December 2014 Retrieved 24 June 2021 Presidente Bukele Anuncia el Nacimiento de su Hija Layla President Bukele Announces the Birth of his Daughter Layla El Mundo in Spanish 15 August 2019 Archived from the original on 22 September 2019 Retrieved 24 June 2021 Reyes Magdalena 8 November 2023 Presidente Bukele Anuncia Nacimiento de su Segunda Hija President Bukele Announces the Birth of His Second Daughter El Mundo in Spanish Retrieved 8 November 2023 Dates confirmed for 2023 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games Sports Tourism Media Retrieved 17 April 2023 La proxima edicion de Miss Universe se llevara a cabo en Latinoamerica HOLA in Spanish 18 January 2023 Retrieved 26 January 2023 Valencia Ricardo 12 January 2022 Opinion El Autoritarismo se Afianzo en El Salvador y la Oposicion Sigue Sin Comprender el Bukelismo Opinion Authoritarianism is Entrenched in El Salvador and the Opposition Continues to Not Comprehend Bukelism The Washington Post in Spanish Retrieved 12 January 2023 Para el Bukelismo No Hay Nada Sagrado For Bukelism Nothing is Sacred El Pais in Spanish 11 November 2022 Retrieved 12 January 2023 El Bukelismo Bukelism La Estrella de Panama in Spanish 18 December 2022 Retrieved 12 January 2023 Fox Michael 17 August 2023 El Salvador s Model of Authoritarianism May Be Spreading to Countries Like Costa Rica and Honduras The Real News Network Retrieved 18 August 2023 De La Hoz Felipe 25 May 2021 El Salvador s Leader is Updating the Autocrat Playbook for the TikTok Generation The Washington Post Retrieved 18 August 2023 Dee Katherine 15 August 2023 Javier Milei is Bringing the Spirit of Trump to Argentina The Telegraph Archived from the original on 15 August 2023 Retrieved 18 August 2023 Presidente Bukele Advierte a Transportistas que Incrementen el Pasaje Es un Delito y Sera Penado como Tal Diario La Huella in Spanish 11 March 2022 Retrieved 12 March 2022 Presidente Bukele Advierte a los Transportistas a que Respeten el Precio del Pasaje Noticias La Gaceta in Spanish 11 March 2022 Retrieved 12 March 2022 Bukele Nayib 2019 Infraestructura Plan Cuscatlan Infrastructure Cuscatlan Plan PDF plancuscatlan com in Spanish p 31 Retrieved 28 April 2022 Magana Yolanda 26 April 2022 Aprueban Leyes para Construir Tren y Aeropuerto del Pacifico They Approve Laws to Construct the Train and Airport of the Pacific diario elmundo sv in Spanish El Mundo Retrieved 26 April 2022 Mahtani Noor 26 March 2023 El giro de Bukele con el aborto de defenderlo a calificarlo de genocidio El Pais in Spanish Retrieved 10 September 2023 a b Jackson Jhoni 26 March 2020 Residente Clashes with El Salvador s Pro Life Anti Gay Marriage President on IG Live Wemezcla Renteria Nelson 17 September 2021 Porter Mark ed Salvadoran President Rules Out Allowing Abortion Same Sex Marriage Reuters Retrieved 30 April 2022 Creitz Charles 16 March 2021 Salvadoran President Tells Tucker Mass Immigration Not Profitable Feeding on Dependency Fox News Retrieved 8 September 2021 El Salvador s New President Thinks He Can Turn The Country Around YouTube VICE News 19 June 2019 Retrieved 28 April 2022 Lizarraga Daniel 15 September 2021 The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 Nayib Bukele time com Time Retrieved 15 November 2021 Silva E 8 August 2022 El Salvador y las Criptomonedas Protagonizan Escenas de un Famoso Drama Coreano El Salvador and Cryptocurrency are Protagonists in Scene from Famous Korean Drama El Salvador com in Spanish Retrieved 17 September 2022 Bibliography edit Roque Baldovinos Ricardo May August 2021 Nayib Bukele Populismo e Implosion Democratica en El Salvador Nayib Bukele Populism and Democratic Implosion in El Salvador PDF Andamios in Spanish 18 46 231 253 doi 10 29092 uacm v18i46 844 S2CID 237824511 Retrieved 7 November 2021 Further reading editFreeman Will 16 February 2023 Nayib Bukele s Growing List of Latin American Admirers Americas Quarterly Retrieved 16 February 2023 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nayib Bukele Biography by CIDOB in Spanish Biography on Official Presidential Website in Spanish Political officesPreceded byAlvaro Rodriguez Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlan2012 2015 Succeeded byMichelle SolPreceded byNorman Quijano Mayor of San Salvador2015 2018 Succeeded byErnesto MuyshondtPreceded bySalvador Sanchez Ceren President of El Salvador2019 present IncumbentParty political officesNew office Leader of Nuevas Ideas2018 present IncumbentNew political party GANA nominee for President of El Salvador2019 Most recentNew political party NI nominee for President of El Salvador2024 Current holderHonorary titlesPreceded byJimmy Morales President pro tempore of theCentral American Integration System2019 Succeeded byJuan Orlando HernandezPortals nbsp Biography nbsp Business nbsp Central America nbsp El Salvador nbsp Latin America nbsp Politics Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nayib Bukele amp oldid 1185610080, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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