Nayib Bukele

Nayib Bukele
Born	Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez 24 7, 1981
Birthplace	San Salvador, El Salvador
Nationality	Salvadoran
Occupation	Politician, businessman
Title	President of El Salvador
Known for	81st President of El Salvador, anti-gang crackdown, Bitcoin legal tender law
Education	Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas
Spouse(s)	Gabriela de Bukele
Children	1
Website	[https://www.presidencia.gob.sv/presidente-de-la-republica/ Official site]

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who has served as the 81st President of El Salvador since 1 June 2019. Rising from the advertising industry to municipal politics, Bukele first gained national attention as the young mayor of the small city of Nuevo Cuscatlán before winning the mayoralty of the capital, San Salvador, in 2015. After being expelled from the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 2017, he founded the Nuevas Ideas party and won the 2019 presidential election with 53 percent of the vote, running under the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) coalition. His presidency has been defined by a dramatic security crackdown that resulted in the arrest of over 85,000 people with alleged gang affiliations and a steep decline in homicide rates, as well as by the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. He won re-election in 2024 with approximately 85 percent of the vote after the Supreme Court of Justice reinterpreted the constitutional ban on consecutive presidential terms. While Bukele has maintained approval ratings consistently above 75 percent in El Salvador, his tenure has drawn significant international criticism over democratic backsliding, press freedom restrictions, and the consolidation of executive power.

Early Life

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was born on 24 July 1981 in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. He is of Palestinian descent through his father, Armando Bukele Kattán, a prominent businessman and imam in the Salvadoran Muslim community. El Salvador has a small but historically significant Palestinian community that has been present in the country since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and families of Arab descent have played notable roles in Salvadoran commerce and public life.

Bukele's father operated businesses in several sectors, including an advertising company that would later become significant in the younger Bukele's career trajectory. Images surfaced during Bukele's political career showing him praying inside a mosque, generating public discussion about his religious background, though Bukele has generally identified himself as a Christian in public life.

Bukele grew up during the final years of the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992) and its aftermath, a period that profoundly shaped the country's political landscape and gave rise to the two-party system dominated by the right-wing ARENA party and the leftist FMLN, which transitioned from a guerrilla movement into a political party following the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.

Education

Bukele attended the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA), a private Jesuit university in San Salvador, where he studied law. He did not complete his law degree, instead leaving the university to pursue business ventures in the advertising industry.

Career

Business Career

In 1999, at the age of 18, Bukele established his own advertising company. He also worked at an advertising firm owned by his father, Armando Bukele Kattán. Both companies were involved in producing election campaign advertising for the FMLN, which created early connections between Bukele and the left-wing political party that would later serve as his entry point into electoral politics. His work in advertising and branding gave Bukele an early fluency in media strategy and public communications that would become a defining feature of his political career.

Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán (2012–2015)

Bukele entered politics in 2011 and formally joined the FMLN in 2012. That same year, he ran for mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a small municipality in the La Libertad department near San Salvador, and won the election. He took office on 1 May 2012, succeeding Álvaro Rodríguez.

As mayor of the small municipality, Bukele gained a reputation as a young, media-savvy politician who used social media platforms to communicate directly with constituents—a departure from the communication styles of the traditional Salvadoran political establishment. His tenure in Nuevo Cuscatlán attracted attention from within the FMLN, and the party endorsed him for the much larger and more politically significant role of Mayor of San Salvador in the 2015 elections.

Mayor of San Salvador (2015–2018)

In March 2015, Bukele was elected as the 125th Mayor of San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, running as the FMLN candidate. He assumed office on 1 May 2015, succeeding Norman Quijano of the ARENA party.

As mayor of San Salvador, Bukele undertook urban revitalization projects and continued to cultivate his image as a modernizing, youthful leader distinct from the established political class. His heavy use of social media, including direct engagement with citizens on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, built him a substantial personal following that operated largely independently of the FMLN's traditional party structures.

However, tensions between Bukele and the FMLN leadership escalated during his time as mayor. In October 2017, the FMLN's Ethics Tribunal expelled Bukele from the party, citing violations of party discipline and internal statutes. Bukele framed his expulsion as evidence that the established parties were resistant to reform and positioned himself as an outsider fighting entrenched political interests. He served out the remainder of his mayoral term, which ended on 30 April 2018, and was succeeded by Ernesto Muyshondt of ARENA.

Founding of Nuevas Ideas and the 2019 Presidential Campaign

Following his expulsion from the FMLN, Bukele founded the political party Nuevas Ideas ("New Ideas") in late 2017. The party was built around Bukele's personal brand and positioned itself as a movement against the traditional two-party system that had governed El Salvador since the end of the civil war. However, the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) refused to register Nuevas Ideas in time for the 2019 presidential election, citing procedural issues with the party's registration.

Unable to run under his own party's banner, Bukele formed an alliance with the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), a smaller right-wing party, to serve as his vehicle in the presidential race. Despite the ideological incongruity—Bukele had risen through the left-wing FMLN and GANA was a right-leaning splinter from ARENA—the pragmatic alliance allowed Bukele to appear on the ballot.

The 2019 presidential election, held on 3 February 2019, resulted in a decisive victory for Bukele, who won approximately 53 percent of the vote in the first round, avoiding a runoff. His victory ended the three-decade alternation of power between ARENA and the FMLN and represented the election of the first president in the post-civil war era not affiliated with either of the two dominant parties. He was inaugurated on 1 June 2019, with Félix Ulloa serving as Vice President.

Presidency (2019–present)

Security Policy and the Gang Crackdown

Security has been the central policy focus of Bukele's presidency. El Salvador had long been one of the most violent countries in the world, with powerful gangs—particularly MS-13 and Barrio 18—exercising territorial control over large swaths of the country and contributing to one of the highest homicide rates globally. When Bukele took office in June 2019, the country's homicide rate stood at approximately 38 per 100,000 people.

In July 2019, Bukele implemented the Territorial Control Plan, a security strategy that deployed military and police forces to gang-controlled areas. During his first year in office, homicides fell by approximately 50 percent.

The security policy escalated dramatically in March 2022, when 87 people were killed by gangs over a single weekend. In response, Bukele declared a state of exception (régimen de excepción), suspending certain constitutional rights including the right to assembly, the right to be informed of the reason for arrest, and the right to legal counsel. The state of exception, initially intended as a temporary measure, has been renewed continuously since March 2022.

Under the state of exception, Salvadoran security forces conducted a massive crackdown that resulted in the arrest of over 85,000 individuals with alleged gang affiliations by December 2024. The government built new mega-prisons to house detainees, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), a 40,000-capacity facility that became a symbol of Bukele's security approach. By 2024, El Salvador's homicide rate had fallen to 1.9 per 100,000, among the lowest in the Americas—a dramatic transformation from its position as one of the hemisphere's most violent nations.

However, the crackdown has drawn substantial criticism from human rights organizations, which have documented cases of arbitrary detention, mistreatment of prisoners, and the arrest of individuals with no gang connections. The indefinite continuation of the state of exception has been described by critics as a permanent suspension of civil liberties.

Bitcoin Policy

In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender after Bukele pushed a law through the Legislative Assembly requiring all businesses to accept Bitcoin as payment alongside the United States dollar. Bukele also promoted plans to build a "Bitcoin City" near the Conchagua volcano, which would be funded by Bitcoin-backed bonds. The policy attracted international attention and criticism from international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, which raised concerns about financial stability risks.

Legislative and Institutional Changes

In February 2020, Bukele ordered approximately 40 armed soldiers into the Legislative Assembly building to pressure lawmakers into approving a US$109 million loan for the Territorial Control Plan. The incident, during which Bukele sat in the Assembly speaker's chair flanked by soldiers, triggered a political crisis. Opposition politicians and international observers described the event as an attempted self-coup and an act of intimidation against the legislature.

After Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the February 2021 legislative elections, Bukele's allies in the new legislature moved swiftly to consolidate control over other branches of government. On their first day in office in May 2021, the Nuevas Ideas–controlled Assembly voted to remove the attorney general and all five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber, replacing them with loyalists.

In June 2023, the Legislative Assembly approved Bukele's proposals to reduce the number of Salvadoran municipalities from 262 to 44 and to shrink the legislature itself from 84 seats to 60. Critics argued that these reforms concentrated power further and reduced political representation.

2024 Re-election

The Constitution of El Salvador historically prohibited consecutive presidential re-election. However, the newly appointed Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a reinterpretation of this provision, ruling that a sitting president could stand for a second consecutive term. Bukele ran for re-election in the February 2024 presidential election and won with approximately 85 percent of the vote, securing a mandate for a second five-year term. The constitutional reinterpretation was criticized by legal scholars, opposition figures, and international observers who argued it violated the explicit text of the constitution and represented a further erosion of institutional checks on presidential power.

Democratic Backsliding and Press Freedom

International assessments of El Salvador's democratic health have declined substantially during Bukele's presidency. Between 2019 and 2025, El Salvador fell 61 places in the World Press Freedom Index and 24 places in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, which reclassified the country from a "flawed democracy" to a "hybrid regime."

Bukele has repeatedly attacked journalists and media outlets critical of his government. Investigative journalists reporting on allegations of secret negotiations between the Bukele government and gang leaders have faced threats and, in some cases, have gone into exile. In November 2025, The Guardian published an account by journalists who said they had been forced to leave El Salvador after publishing interviews with gang leaders who described alleged ties to Bukele's government.

In November 2021, Bukele's government passed legislation described by the Spanish newspaper El País as emulating repressive laws enacted in Nicaragua under President Daniel Ortega, aimed at restricting the operations of foreign-funded non-governmental organizations and media outlets.

Social Policy

Bukele has taken conservative positions on certain social issues. In September 2021, he publicly ruled out legalizing abortion or same-sex marriage in El Salvador during his presidency.

Foreign Relations

Bukele's foreign policy has included shifting El Salvador's diplomatic recognition from the People's Republic of China to Taiwan during the early part of his presidency. In August 2019, Bukele met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during a visit to Taiwan. His government was described by Israeli media as friendly toward Israel.

Bukele's relationship with the United States has been complex. His government's cooperation with the Trump administration on immigration and deportation policy has drawn attention, with The New York Times reporting in 2025 that El Salvador's role in the Trump administration's deportation strategy signaled a new level of global visibility and power for Bukele.

Personal Life

Bukele is married to Gabriela de Bukele, who has Jewish ancestry according to Israeli media reports. In September 2019, the couple announced the birth of their daughter, Layla.

Bukele is of Palestinian descent on his father's side. His father, Armando Bukele Kattán, served as an imam and was a prominent figure in El Salvador's small Muslim community. Bukele's multiethnic and multireligious family background—with Palestinian Muslim heritage on his father's side and his wife's Jewish roots—has attracted media attention both domestically and internationally.

Bukele has been a prolific user of social media throughout his political career, maintaining a large personal following across platforms including Twitter (now X), where his self-authored biographies have attracted attention. At various points, his Twitter bio has read "The world's coolest dictator" and, as of December 2025, "Philosopher King." These self-descriptions have been interpreted variously as ironic trolling of his critics and as revealing statements about his governing philosophy.

Recognition

Bukele's security crackdown has earned him significant popular support within El Salvador, where his approval ratings have remained above 75 percent throughout his presidency and have frequently exceeded 90 percent, making him one of the most popular leaders in Latin America by that measure. His landslide re-election in 2024 with approximately 85 percent of the vote further demonstrated his domestic popularity.

Internationally, however, Bukele's record has drawn a more divided assessment. The decline in El Salvador's position in the World Press Freedom Index (61 places between 2019 and 2025) and the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index (24 places in the same period, resulting in a reclassification as a hybrid regime) represent significant markers in international evaluations of his governance.

Academic and policy institutions have examined Bukele's presidency through multiple lenses. The Harvard International Review analyzed his gang crackdown in the context of his self-styled image as "The World's Coolest Dictator." The Democratic Erosion project, an academic consortium, published analysis of Bukele's pursuit of indefinite term limits as a case study in executive power entrenchment.

Legacy

Bukele's presidency represents a significant departure in Salvadoran political history. His election in 2019 broke the three-decade duopoly of the ARENA and FMLN parties, and the subsequent collapse of both traditional parties' electoral strength—culminating in Nuevas Ideas' supermajority in the 2021 legislative elections and Bukele's 85-percent victory in 2024—has fundamentally restructured the Salvadoran political landscape.

The dramatic reduction in El Salvador's homicide rate—from 38 per 100,000 at the start of his presidency to 1.9 per 100,000 by 2024—represents one of the most rapid declines in violent crime recorded in any country and has transformed daily life for millions of Salvadorans who previously lived under gang-imposed territorial control. The "Bukele model" of security policy has attracted attention from leaders across Latin America and beyond, with several governments expressing interest in adopting similar approaches.

At the same time, the methods employed to achieve these security gains—a permanent state of exception, mass incarceration, the suspension of due process rights, and the documented detention of individuals without gang ties—have raised questions about the long-term sustainability and human costs of the approach. The removal and replacement of Supreme Court justices and the attorney general, the constitutional reinterpretation permitting re-election, the reduction in legislative seats and municipalities, and the pursuit of indefinite term limits represent a systematic weakening of institutional checks on executive power.

Bukele's use of social media and personal branding as central tools of governance, his embrace of Bitcoin as a national policy, and his cultivation of an image that blends populist appeal with authoritarian governance have made him one of the most discussed and debated political figures in Latin America in the 2020s.