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Nayib Bukele
President of El Salvador since 2019 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (Spanish: [naˈʝiβ buˈkele]; born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who has served as the 81st and current president of El Salvador since 2019.
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In 1999, Bukele established an advertising company and worked at an advertising company owned by his father, Armando Bukele Kattán. Both companies advertised election campaigns for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party. Bukele entered politics in 2011. In 2012, he joined the FMLN and was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán. Bukele served until his 2015 election as Mayor of San Salvador, where he served until 2018. In 2017, Bukele was ousted from the FMLN. He founded the Nuevas Ideas political party shortly afterward and pursued a presidential campaign in 2019. After the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) refused to register his party, Bukele ran for president with the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) and won with 53 percent of the vote.
In July 2019, Bukele implemented the Territorial Control Plan to reduce El Salvador's 2019 homicide rate of 38 per 100,000 people. Homicides fell by 50 percent during Bukele's first year in office. After 87 people were killed by gangs over one weekend in March 2022, Bukele initiated a nationwide crackdown on gangs, resulting in the arrests of over 85,000 people with alleged gang affiliations by December 2024; the United States Department of the Treasury has accused Bukele's government of secretly negotiating with MS-13 and Barrio 18 to lower the country's homicide rate. El Salvador's homicide rate decreased to 1.9 homicides per 100,000 in 2024, one of the lowest in the Americas. Bukele passed a law in 2021 that made bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador and promoted plans to build Bitcoin City. By 2025, El Salvador's bitcoin experiment had largely been unsuccessful. In June 2023, the Legislative Assembly approved Bukele's proposals to reduce the number of municipalities from 262 to 44 and the number of seats in the legislature from 84 to 60. He ran for re-election in the 2024 presidential election and won with 85 percent of the vote after the Supreme Court of Justice reinterpreted the constitution's ban on consecutive re-election.
Bukele has high approval ratings. Bukele has been described as an authoritarian and has described himself as the "world's coolest dictator". El Salvador has experienced democratic backsliding under Bukele, as he has dismantled democratic institutions, curtailed political and civil liberties, and attacked independent media and the political opposition. In February 2020, Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to intimidate lawmakers into approving a US$109 million loan for the Territorial Control Plan. After Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the 2021 legislative election, Bukele's allies in the legislature voted to replace the attorney general and all five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber. Bukele has attacked journalists, news outlets, and furthered press censorship.
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Early life
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Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was born on 24 July 1981 in San Salvador, El Salvador.[3] His father was Armando Bukele Kattán, a businessman and industrial chemist,[4][5] and his mother is Olga Marina Ortez. Bukele's father died in 2015.[6] Bukele was the couple's first child. He has three younger brothers, Karim, Yusef, and Ibrajim, and has four paternal half sisters and two paternal half brothers.[3][7] Bukele's father converted from Christianity to Islam in the 1980s, became an imam, and founded four mosques in El Salvador.[5] Bukele's mother is Catholic.[6] Bukele's paternal grandparents were Palestinian Christians who emigrated to El Salvador from Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 1921. His maternal grandfather was Greek Orthodox, and his maternal grandmother was Catholic.[4]
Bukele completed his secondary education at the Escuela Panamericana in 1999 at age 18.[5][6] Bukele enrolled at Central American University in San Salvador to study judicial science, aspiring to become a lawyer,[5][6] but dropped out to work for the Nölck advertising agency, one of his father's businesses.[8] Nölck campaigned for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a left-wing Salvadoran political party.[9]
In 1999, Bukele founded marketing company Obermet, also known as 4am Saatchi & Saatchi El Salvador, and was its president from 1999 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2012.[8][10] The company ran political advertising for the FMLN presidential campaigns of Schafik Hándal in 2004 and Mauricio Funes in 2009.[6][11]: 239 Bukele was president of Yamaha Motors El Salvador, a company that sells and distributes Yamaha products in El Salvador, from 2009 to 2012.[12] During Bukele's business career, he called himself a "businessman with a great future" ("empresario con gran futuro").[9]
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Early political career
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Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán
In 2011, Bukele announced that he would enter politics as a member of the FMLN[6] to break out of "his comfort zone" ("su zona de confort") as a businessman.[9] Officially joining the party in 2012,[13] he campaigned for the mayoralty of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a municipality in the department of La Libertad, part of the San Salvador metropolitan area. Bukele's campaign was supported by the Democratic Change party.[6] He was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán in March 2012 with 51.67 percent of the vote, defeating primary challenger Tomás Rodríguez of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).[14] Bukele took office on 1 May 2012[6] as the country's youngest mayor.[9]
Bukele created a scholarship program for youths in the municipality,[6] donating his $2,000 salary to fund the program.[12] Bukele launched Sphere PM, a project that launched a high-altitude balloon to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,000 m) and took pictures of El Salvador, in August 2014.[15] He stated that Sphere PM's goal was to promote education in science and technology to dissuade the municipality's youth from crime.[16] Bukele spoke at United Nations headquarters about projects he had undertaken as mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán as part of the November 2014 World Cities Day.[17] In January 2015, he inaugurated a $1.7 million boulevard connecting Nuevo Cuscatlán with Huizúcar and Antiguo Cuscatlán.[18] Bukele did much of his mayoral work with funding from ALBA Petróleos, owned by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.[11]: 239
Mayor of San Salvador
In August 2014, Bukele announced that he would seek election as mayor of San Salvador in the 2015 elections.[6] His candidacy was confirmed by FMLN secretary-general Medardo González on 19 August 2014.[19] Bukele delegated administration of Nuevo Cuscatlán to council member Michelle Sol in February 2015 to focus on his campaign.[20] During his campaign, that was supported by the Salvadoran Progressive Party, FMLN party leadership called Bukele the party's "crown jewel" ("joya de la corona"). Bukele's campaign used catchphrases such as "we have to change history" ("tenemos que cambiar la historia") and "together we will go forward" ("juntos saldremos adelante") to rally support from young voters.[9]
His primary opponent was Edwin Zamora, a businessman and Legislative Assembly deputy from ARENA. Bukele led Zamora in opinion polls before the election.[9] He defeated Zamora with 50.38 percent of the vote on 1 March 2015, and took office on 1 May.[6] Bukele appointed a cousin, Hassan, and his half-brother Yamil to administrative positions on the San Salvador municipal council. The appointments were criticized by ARENA and FMLN politicians.[21]
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As mayor, Bukele began a "reordering" ("reordenamiento") to revitalize the city's historic downtown area and combat crime.[22] On the day Bukele took office, he reverted the names of two streets in San Salvador (Calle Mayor Roberto D'Aubuisson and Boulevard Coronel José Arturo Castellanos) to Calle San Antonio Abad and Boulevard Venezuela respectively. Both names had been changed by Bukele's predecessor, Norman Quijano. Zamora, who had become a member of San Salvador's municipal council, stated that the names were reverted due to flaws in the initial renaming process.[23] He added that another street would be named in honor of Castellanos, who provided fake Salvadoran passports to 40,000 Central European Jews to help them escape the Holocaust.[21] Bukele renamed 89 Avenida Norte in honor of Castellanos in June 2016.[24]
In December 2016, Bukele inaugurated the Cuscatlán Market to encourage street vendors to relocate their businesses.[25] Many vendors refused to move, despite the market.[22] Some accused him of negotiating with gangs to organize its construction, since it was located in gang-controlled territory.[6] In January 2016, Bukele began a "San Salvador 100% Illuminated" campaign to "have a light on every corner of San Salvador" to combat crime in the city. The campaign was completed by May 2016.[22] He also installed video-surveillance cameras in parts of San Salvador that were severely affected by crime.[6] Bukele inaugurated the renovated downtown Gerardo Barrios Plaza in October 2017,[26] and the new downtown Lineal Plaza in April 2018.[27]
Bukele created a scholarship program, known as the Dalton Project and funded by his salary,[8] for youth in San Salvador to prevent them from joining gangs.[6] Bukele also created the My New School project to modernize San Salvador's primary schools.[6] In May 2015, he signed an agreement with Panama City mayor José Blandón to establish a sister city relationship between San Salvador and Panama City.[28] In November 2015, Bukele signed an agreement with the Spanish National League of Professional Football to promote sports for San Salvador's youth.[29]
In September 2016, Bukele visited Washington, D.C. and met with Mayor Muriel Bowser to discuss the implementation of urban-development projects. Bukele received the keys to the city of Gaithersburg, Maryland, and 11 September was designated the "Day of Mayor Nayib Bukele" ("Día del alcalde Nayib Bukele").[30] He visited Taipei in February 2017 and met with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen to "enhance" the sister-city relationship between San Salvador and Taipei.[31] In February 2018, Bukele attended the 32nd International Mayors Conference in Jerusalem[4] and prayed at the Western Wall.[32]
Troll Center case
In January 2016, the El Diario de Hoy and La Prensa Gráfica newspapers reported that the Búnker digital-programming company had created mirror sites of the newspapers in June 2015 and posted false information in an attempt to damage their reputations; the newspapers described the incident as a cyberattack. In a subsequent investigation by the office of the attorney general (FGR), Bukele allegedly instructed a Twitter user to create the mirror sites. Bukele denied involvement in the creation of the mirror sites.[33][34] The incident became known as the "Troll Center" case.[33] Five people were charged in relation to the case, but the charges were dropped in December 2017.[35]
On 4 July 2017, Bukele sued La Prensa Gráfica for $6 million, alleging that the newspaper had defamed and slandered him in its reporting of the cyberattacks by "falsely" ("falsamente") connecting him to the Troll Center case and "damag[ing] [Bukele's] image" ("dañó la imagen del señor alcalde"). Later that month, a court dismissed Bukele's lawsuit and three other courts rejected his appeals.[36] In December 2018, the FGR stated that it had reviewed information supposedly linking Bukele's cell phone to the cyberattacks.[37]
Expulsion from the FMLN
Bukele's relationship with the FMLN began to deteriorate after he became mayor of San Salvador.[38] He clashed with other party members on Twitter,[6] and frequently resisted FMLN party leadership.[11]: 239 Bukele was a strong critic of Salvador Sánchez Cerén, the FMLN president of El Salvador who was elected in 2014.[38] He threatened to leave the party in 2015 if the FMLN-led government reappointed Luis Martínez as the country's attorney general, describing Martínez as "a gangster, very corrupt, [and] the worst of the worst". The FMLN relented and replaced Martínez, and Bukele later admitted that his threat to leave the party "was a bluff".[22]
In September 2017, San Salvador FMLN member Xóchitl Marchelli alleged that Bukele had thrown an apple at her, calling her a "damn traitor" ("maldita traidora") and a "witch" ("bruja").[39] Bukele did not attend an FMLN ethics tribunal on 7 October 2017, saying that the tribunal was biased in favor of Marchelli.[40] On 10 October 2017, he was expelled from the party after the tribunal determined that he had engaged in "defamatory acts" ("actos difamatorios") against the party, showed "disrespect" ("irrespeto") for women's rights and the party's statutes, and made "disqualifying comments" ("comentarios descalificadores") to party members.[41]
Marchelli sued Bukele through the Specialized Investigative Court, but sent a letter to the court in October 2018 saying that she would no longer pursue the matter for health reasons.[42] Despite Marchelli's withdrawal, the FGR proceeded with the case. On 29 March 2019, the Specialized Sentencing Court acquitted Bukele.[43]
In the 2018 legislative and municipal elections, where Bukele was favored to win re-election before his expulsion,[13] the FMLN had its worst performance since 1994, the party's first election. It lost six seats in the Legislative Assembly, and 16 municipalities.[44] During the election, Bukele called on his supporters nationwide to spoil their vote or stay home on election day rather than support the FMLN.[45]: 137 In February 2019, FMLN presidential communications secretary Roberto Lorenzana stated that Bukele's expulsion was a mistake that cost the party votes.[46] In 2025, Bukele remarked that he was "mistaken" ("equivocado") for having previously voted for the FMLN.[47]
2019 presidential election
Bukele's popularity as mayor of San Salvador led some journalists to believe that he would run for president in 2019,[11]: 239 but he denied that he would.[22] He eventually expressed interest in running for president with the FMLN, but the party did not consider him as its vice-presidential nominee. He wrote on social media that the FMLN had purged him,[11]: 240–241 and portrayed himself as an independent politician who rejected the country's political system.[13]
On 15 October 2017, Bukele announced his intention to run for president in 2019 and form a new political party.[48] He announced the establishment of the Nuevas Ideas party on 25 October 2017 on social media, saying that Nuevas Ideas would seek to remove ARENA and the FMLN from power.[49] During his presidential campaign, Bukele and a network of YouTubers, bloggers, and internet trolls attempted to discredit ARENA and the FMLN.[11]: 242 Bukele tried to associate the two parties with the governments of previous presidents that were marred by corruption, using slogans such as "There's enough money when nobody steals" and "Return what was stolen".[38] His campaign promises included the creation of an international commission to combat corruption, the development of a trans-national railroad and a new airport, job opportunities for Salvadorans, and reduced crime.[50][51]
For Bukele to run for president with Nuevas Ideas, he had to get the party registered with the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE).[52] Although Nuevas Ideas had enough signatures to register,[53] Bukele believed that the TSE would not register the party before the 29 July 2018 presidential nomination deadline.[6][54]
Bukele registered as a member of Democratic Change and sought the party's presidential nomination before the deadline, but the TSE canceled the party's registration four days before the deadline because Democratic Change failed to receive over 50,000 votes during the 2015 legislative elections. On 29 July 2018, Bukele registered with the right-wing Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) and received the party's presidential nomination. He selected Félix Ulloa, a lawyer, as his vice-presidential candidate.[6][54]
Bukele used social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter extensively throughout his campaign to communicate with his supporters.[55] He did not attend either of the two presidential debates, in December 2018 and January 2019, despite saying that he would attend, claiming that the debate rules were not explained to him.[56][57] Bukele was the election's front-runner,[55] leading virtually every poll by a substantial margin. His three opponents were ARENA's[b] Carlos Calleja, a businessman who owned the Super Selectos supermarket chain; the FMLN's former minister of foreign affairs Hugo Martínez, and Vamos' Josué Alvarado, a businessman.[50][59] On election day, 3 February 2019, Bukele defeated Calleja, Martínez, and Alvarado with 53.1 percent of the vote. He was the first presidential candidate to be elected since José Napoleón Duarte (1984–1989) who was not a member of ARENA or the FMLN.[55][60]
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Presidency
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In June 2019, Nayib Bukele was inaugurated as the 81st president of El Salvador. He oversaw El Salvador's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and experimented with classifying Bitcoin as a national legal tender. Bukele passed a law in 2021 that made bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador and promoted plans to build Bitcoin City. By 2025, El Salvador's bitcoin experiment had largely been unsuccessful.
Bukele weathered two political crises in 2020 and 2021 which ultimately strengthened his Nuevas Ideas party. In February 2020, Bukele ordered 40 soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to intimidate lawmakers into approving a US$109 million loan for the Territorial Control Plan. After Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the 2021 legislative election, Bukele's allies in the legislature voted to replace the attorney general and all five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber. Bukele has attacked journalists and news outlets on social media, drawing allegations of press censorship.
In July 2019, Bukele implemented the Territorial Control Plan to combat gang violence and reduce El Salvador's homicide rate, which at the time was 38 per 100,000 people. Homicides fell by 50 percent during Bukele's first year in office. Digital news outlet El Faro and the United States Department of State accused Bukele's government of secretly negotiating with gangs to reduce the homicide rate. After 87 people were killed by gangs over one weekend in March 2022, Bukele initiated a nationwide state of emergency and crackdown on gangs, resulting in the arrests of over 85,000 people with alleged gang affiliations by December 2024. El Salvador's homicide rate decreased to 1.9 homicides per 100,000 in 2024, one of the lowest in the Americas. The resulting crackdown on organized crime has generally been characterized as reducing gang activity and violence at the cost of widespread arbitrary arrests and human rights abuses.[61]: 84
In June 2023, the Legislative Assembly approved Bukele's proposals to reduce the number of municipalities from 262 to 44 and the number of seats in the legislature from 84 to 60. He ran for re-election in the 2024 presidential election and won with 85 percent of the vote after the Supreme Court of Justice reinterpreted the constitution's ban on consecutive re-election. Bukele's government pursued further constitutional changes in 2025, allowing indefinite presidential re-election, extending the presidential term from five to six years, and eliminating runoff elections.
Bukele is highly popular in El Salvador, where he has held a job approval rating above 75% during his entire presidency and averages above 90% approval. He is also popular throughout Latin America. Critics say El Salvador has experienced democratic backsliding under Bukele, as he has dismantled democratic institutions, curtailed political and civil liberties, and attacked independent media and the political opposition.Remove ads
Personal life
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Family
Bukele began dating psychologist and ballet dancer Gabriela Rodríguez in 2004[62] and the two married on 6 December 2014.[3][9] The couple have two daughters. Their first was born in 2019[63] and their second in 2023.[64]
Wealth
According to the Salvadoran government's transparency website, Bukele's monthly presidential salary was $5,181 in July 2019. According to the website, he had a net worth of $2,548,967 at that time.[65] Bukele acquired most of his wealth through business ventures before entering politics.[66] Bukele owns a coffee farm. In July 2024, he began donating coffee beans grown on his farm to local businesses[67] and launched the Bean of Fire coffee brand.[68]
Religion
Bukele's religious beliefs were controversial during his 2019 presidential campaign, with rumors that he was a Christian, a Muslim, or an atheist.[69] The controversy began when pictures from 2011 of Bukele praying at a mosque with his father and brothers spread on social media.[70][71] Bukele dismissed the controversy as an attempt by the political right to exploit Islamophobia in the predominantly Catholic country.[69]
Although Bukele does not identify with any religion, he has stated that he believes in God and Jesus.[6][71] In a 2015 interview, Bukele said: "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".[4] Before that year, some Salvadorans believed that he was a Muslim.[72]: 166 Bukele has referred to Bible verses,[69] God, and Saint Óscar Romero — the archbishop of San Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 — in some of his speeches,[72]: 166–172 and has called himself an "instrument of God" ("instrumento de Dios").[72]: 177 He met with Pope Francis in April 2015, saying that the pope told him that Rutilio Grande — a Jesuit priest who was assassinated in 1977 — would soon be beatified.[72]: 166
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Political views
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As mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, Bukele described himself as part of the "radical left"[73] because he wanted "radical changes" ("cambios radicales") for El Salvador;[74] he also stated that his family had always had significant connections with the Salvadoran political left. Bukele believed in social justice and the state obligation to guarantee Salvadorans the opportunity for "health, education, [and] productive infrastructure" ("salud, educación, [e] infraestructura productiva"). Some FMLN members criticized Bukele's work as a businessman, believing that it contradicted the "historic goal of the proletariat" ("papel histórico del proletariado"): eliminating capitalism.[9]
Since becoming president, Bukele has stated that he does not adhere to any specific political ideology. He has criticized the political left and right in El Salvador for dividing the country after the civil war.[75] In an interview with Time's Vera Bergengruen, Bukele stated that he does not consider himself to be left- or right-wing.[73] El Faro's editorial board has described Bukele as a "politician without an ideology" ("político sin ideología").[76] Despite Bukele's ostensible ideologic neutrality, some journalists and political analysts have described him as a populist,[77][78][79] a right-wing populist,[80]: 82 [81]: 5 [82] and a conservative.[83][84] Bukele himself has received support from conservatives abroad in both Latin America[85][86][87][88] and the United States,[86][89][90][91] particularly for his anti-crime policies, as well as criticism for democratic backsliding and consolidating power.[92] His political views and government policies have been referred to by some journalists as "Bukelism"[93][94][95] or the "Bukele method".[92][96][97]
Some Western journalists have compared Bukele to Trump, citing Bukele's style of governance, government policies, rhetoric, and criticism of the press as similar to Trump's.[77][98][99][100] In 2019, Foreign Policy's Melissa Vida referred to Bukele as "El Salvador's Trump"[101] and Jacobin's Hilary Goodfriend called him "the Donald Trump of Central America".[102] Bukele was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump after his victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[103][104] The Economist has described Bukele as politically "hard right" and compared his policies and ideological views to Argentinian president Javier Milei, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, and former Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast.[105]
Bukele is a critic of George Soros,[106] saying in May 2023 that "in all the countries of Latin America, there are outlets and 'journalists' paid by Soros" ("en todos los países de Latinoamérica hay medios y 'periodistas' pagados por Soros").[107] In February 2024, Bukele spoke at the American Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and accused Soros of attempting to "dictate public politics and laws" ("dictar políticas públicas y leyes") in El Salvador.[108] Bukele also expressed opposition to globalism, saying that "it's already dead" in El Salvador.[105]
Bukelism is also seen by some as a Third Way ideology.[109][110][111]
Social issues
In 2023, Celia Medrano described Bukele's positions on social issues as "flexible" ("flexibles") and a "liquid ideology" ("ideología líquida"). She explained that Bukele changes his positions to appease as many voters as possible and to gauge public opinion on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion.[112]
Bukele stated in 2014 that he was an ally of the LGBT community, supported their civil rights, and opposed discrimination against LGBT individuals.[72]: 167 In August 2021, Bukele proposed constitutional reform to legalize same-sex marriage in El Salvador. The proposal would have changed text in the constitution that defined marriage as being between "a man and a woman" ("hombre y mujer") to defining marriage as between "spouses" ("cónyuges"), and would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. The earliest Bukele's proposal could have gone into effect would have been 2027, since it would have to be approved by two consecutive sessions of the Legislative Assembly.[113] Bukele stated the following month that the proposed constitutional reform would not legalize same-sex marriage, posting on Facebook that the original text would remain intact.[114] In March 2024, Bukele stated that his government would remove "all traces" of "gender ideologies in schools and colleges".[115][116] In June 2024, Bukele fired 300 bureaucrats from the ministry of culture for promoting policies that were "incompatible" with his emphasis on "patriotic and family values".[117]
El Salvador has one of the world's strictest abortion laws, banning it in all circumstances with no exceptions.[118] In 2013, when a Salvadoran woman known as "Beatriz" was denied an abortion despite doctors saying that she would die in childbirth, Bukele called those who denied her an abortion "fanatics" ("fanáticos"). Bukele stated in October 2018 that he only supported abortion in cases where the mother's life was at risk, and expressed opposition to abortion on demand. Shortly after becoming president, he opposed abortion under any circumstances. In an interview with Puerto Rican rapper René Pérez, Bukele said that "someday, we are going to recognize that [abortion] is a great genocide" ("algún día, nos vamos a dar cuenta de que es un gran genocidio").[112] Bukele's August 2021 constitutional-reform proposal considered legalizing abortion in cases where the mother's life was at risk, adding that the proposal would have recognized the right to life for mother and child.[113] He changed his mind the following month, saying that abortion would not be decriminalized and recognizing the "RIGHT TO LIFE (from the moment of conception)" of the unborn. Bukele also ruled out euthanasia.[114]
Central American unity
Nayib Bukele @nayibbukeleSpanish: Aunque por ahora suena a utopía, el sentido común debería apuntar a la unificación de Centroamérica en un solo país.
Although for now it sounds like a utopia, common sense should point to the unification of Central America into a single country.
27 January 2017[119]
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Bukele is a proponent of Central American reunification, an ideology that calls for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua to reestablish the Federal Republic of Central America, and has stated that Central America should be "one single nation" in some of his speeches.[120][121] In January 2024, he reaffirmed on Twitter that he believes that Central America should unite as a single country; each individual country is small and lacks natural resources, but a unified Central American population and biodiversity would help strengthen the region. In his tweet, Bukele conceded that he needed "the will of the peoples" ("la voluntad de los pueblos") of Central America to unite the region.[122]
Bukele was the president pro tempore of the Central American Integration System (SICA), an economic and political organization, from 5 June to 22 December 2019.[123][124][125] In February 2020, Bukele signed an agreement with the Guatemalan government to remove restrictions on border crossings between El Salvador and Guatemala and designate flights between the countries as "domestic" flights to promote tourism. The agreement gave Bukele's government the ability to build a port on the Caribbean Sea in Guatemalan territory, that would give El Salvador access to the Atlantic Ocean. He described the agreement as "the greatest step to the integration of Central America in the last 180 years" ("el mayor paso en la integración de Centroamérica en los últimos 180 años").[126]
According to Will Freeman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Bukele has styled himself as the "second coming of Francisco Morazán", a Honduran politician who was president of the Federal Republic of Central America in the 1820s and 1830s.[88] El Faro's Gabriel Labrador compared him to 18th-century military officer and Venezuela independence leader Simón Bolívar for wanting to form a "union of the [Central American] people".[120]
Emigration
In an interview with VICE News' Krishna Andavolu shortly after Bukele's inauguration, he said that he "share[s] the same concern President Trump [has with] immigration, but for different reasons [...] [Trump] doesn't want our people to go; I don't want our people to leave."[127] In a 2021 interview on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight, Bukele attributed mass emigration from Central America to the United States to the region's "lack of economic opportunity" and "lack of security" and described the level of emigration to the United States as "immoral". He argued that emigration strained the United States and impeded domestic efforts to improve living conditions in El Salvador.[128]
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Public image
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Relationship with the press
There is a before and an after Nayib Bukele for El Salvador. (Hay un antes y un después de Nayib Bukele para El Salvador.)
Bukele and a number of his government officials have attacked journalists and news outlets in speeches and on social media.[81]: 29–30 [130] He has dismissed critics of his government as spreading "fake news"[130] and accused them of being "mercenaries".[131] Bukele has also stated that journalism was once a "noble career that sought the truth" ("carrera noble que buscaba la verdad") that had supposedly become propaganda.[132] Journalists have been harassed and threatened online by Bukele's supporters. The El Salvador Journalists Association (APES) estimated that by November 2022, at least a dozen journalists had fled El Salvador since Bukele took office citing fears for their safety.[130] APES has also stated that journalists have experienced threats, harassment, doxxing, intimidation, surveillance, and criminal prosecution during Bukele's presidency.[133]
According to political scientists, El Salvador has experienced democratic backsliding under Bukele as he has dismantled democratic institutions, curtailed political and civil liberties, and attacked independent media and the political opposition.[134][135] Journalists, politicians, and political analysts have described Bukele as an autocrat,[105][90][136] an authoritarian,[137][138][139][140] a strongman,[141][73][85][90] a caudillo,[137][142][143] and a "millennial dictator".[75][144][145] He has ironically referred to himself in his Twitter profile as the "Dictator of El Salvador",[146] "the coolest dictator in the world"[147][148] (although news outlets often render this as the "world's coolest dictator"),[78][96][149] the "Emperor of El Salvador",[150] the "CEO of El Salvador",[151] and the "Philosopher King".[78][152] Eduardo Escobar, a lawyer with Citizen Action, a non-governmental organization, stated that Bukele's use of his Twitter profile was part of his strategy to "ridicule the feelings of the public or the opposition".[146]
In November 2021, Bukele introduced a bill known as the "Foreign Agents Law" ("Ley de Agentes Extranjeros") to the Legislative Assembly with the goal of "prohibiting foreign interference" ("prohibir la injerencia extranjera") in Salvadoran political affairs. Although he stated that the law was modeled on the United States' Foreign Agents Registration Act, critics instead compared the Foreign Agents Law to Nicaraguan laws that exercise press censorship by shutting down organizations and arresting journalists.[153] In April 2022, the Legislative Assembly passed a law that allowed courts to sentence journalists to 10 to 15 years' imprisonment for reproducing or transmitting messages from gangs at the beginning of the country's gang crackdown. The APES described the law as "a clear attempt at censorship of media".[154] According to a September 2024 Infobae report, leaked audio recordings made by Alejandro Muyshondt in August 2020 supposedly recorded him and Ernesto Castro, then Bukele's personal secretary, agreeing to spy on the newspapers El Diario de Hoy, El Faro, La Prensa Gráfica, and Revista Factum.[155]
A few weeks after El Faro alleged that Bukele's government had negotiated with gangs in 2020 to reduce the country's homicide rate, Bukele launched an investigation of El Faro for money laundering.[75] Although the office of the attorney general did not begin such an investigation, El Faro was subject to tax audits that Human Rights Watch's José Miguel Vivanco described as "selective and abusive". The audits were suspended in March 2021 after a Supreme Court order citing concerns about a risk to freedom of expression.[131] In 2022, Amnesty International stated that at least 22 Salvadoran journalists (most of whom worked for El Faro) had their phones tapped by the Salvadoran government using the Israeli Pegasus spyware.[154] El Faro moved its headquarters to San José, Costa Rica in April 2023, saying that it was trying to avoid "fabricated accusations" from Bukele's government.[156] In 2025, Bukele claimed that most independent journalists and media outlets were part of a supposed "global money laundering operation" ("operación mundial de lavado de dinero"), referring to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).[157]
Hosting of international events
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During Bukele's presidency, El Salvador has hosted a number of international sporting events and one edition of the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Some experts have described El Salvador's hosting of such events as an attempt at sportswashing.[158][159]
Bukele has promoted surfing as part of El Salvador's tourism market. He designated part of El Salvador's Pacific coastline in the La Libertad Department as "Surf City",[160] where the 2021 and 2023 ISA World Surfing Games were hosted.[161][162] El Salvador also hosted the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games. At the tournament's opening ceremony, Bukele rebuked critics by saying that he was "not a dictator" and told them to ask everyday Salvadorans what they thought about his "supposed dictatorship".[159]
In January 2023, Bukele announced that El Salvador would host the Miss Universe 2023 pageant; the last time El Salvador had hosted Miss Universe was in 1975.[163] At the pageant, Bukele said that Miss Universe had given El Salvador the opportunity to "show the world what we are capable of".[164] On the day of the pageant, 300 members of the Movement for Victims of the State of Emergency held a protest demanding the release of innocent victims of the country's gang crackdown and wanting "Miss Universe to see that Salvadorans are suffering". Some protestors wore sashes reading "Miss Political Prisoners", "Miss Persecution", and "Miss Mass Trials".[158][165]
Job approval and popularity
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Although protests against Bukele occurred in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic[166] and in 2023 about his re-election campaign and gang crackdown,[165][167][168] he has retained high job-approval ratings throughout his presidency. Bukele's approval rating has never gone below 75 percent, and has averaged in the 90s.[75][137][169] He is one of the most popular presidents in Salvadoran history,[170] and the Los Angeles Times' Kate Linthicum called him "one of the most popular leaders in the world".[75] The United States Institute of Peace's Mary Speck referred to Bukele as "Latin America's — and possibly the world's — most popular leader".[171] Risa Grais-Targow, a director at the Eurasia Group, described Bukele's approval rating as "sky-high" and "really unprecedented".[151]
In addition to Bukele's domestic popularity, he is also very popular among Salvadorans living in the United States and throughout Latin America.[88] Some Latin American state leaders and other politicians have sought to emulate his government policies.[85][88] In some countries, such as Colombia and Ecuador, opinion polls found Bukele more popular with their residents than domestic politicians. Steven Levitsky, a political scientist and the director of Harvard University's Latin American studies center, wrote that "everybody wants to be a Bukele" and compared his popularity across Latin America to that of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.[88] Some political analysts consider Bukele's popularity a cult of personality.[88][172]
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Honors and decorations
Beijing International Studies University awarded Bukele an honorary doctoral degree in December 2019.[173] In 2021, Time named Bukele as one of the world's 100 most influential people.[174]
Foreign decorations
Grand Cross with Golden Plaque of the National Order of Juan Mora Fernández (11 November 2024)[175]
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Electoral history
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See also
Notes
- Claudia Rodríguez de Guevara served as acting president while Bukele's presidential powers and duties were suspended from 30 November 2023 to 1 June 2024 during Bukele's re-election campaign and subsequent presidential transition period.[2]
- Carlos Calleja was supported by a coalition of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), the National Coalition Party (PCN), the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), and Salvadoran Democracy that was known as the Alliance for a New Country.[58]
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References
Further reading
External links
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