Nayib Bukele

Nayib Bukele was born on 24 July 1981, in San Salvador. He is a son of Olga Ortez de Bukele and Armando Bukele Kattán. According to The Times of Israel, Bukele's paternal grandparents were Palestinian Christians from Jerusalem and Bethlehem while his maternal grandmother was Catholic and his maternal grandfather was Greek Orthodox. "His father later converted to Islam and became an imam". "Nayib" is a hispanicized version of the Arabic name "Najib."

Nayib founded his first company at age 18.[4] An article in the digital newspaper El Faro said that Nayib Bukele owns Yamaha Motors El Salvador,[5] a company that sells and distributes Yamaha products in El Salvador.[6] He was also the Director and President of OBERMET, S.A. DE C.V.[7]

On 11 March 2012, he was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, in the department of La Libertad, representing a coalition of the FMLN with 2754 votes (49.72%) and CD 108 votes (1.95%), for a total of 2862 votes (50.68%), defeating the incumbent ARENA party, which won 2585 votes (46.67%). He took office on 1 May 2012.[8]

Bukele at the beatification of Óscar Romero, with then-vice president Óscar Ortiz and his wife.

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 with the PSP that won 89,164 votes (50.37% of total). His main challenger, businessman and former deputy Edwin Zamora (ARENA), won 82,288 votes (46.49%). The latter party had controlled the city during the previous six years. Bukele took office on 1 May 2015.[9] In February 2017, Bukele visited Taipei city, the capital of Taiwan, and met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.[10]

In February 2018, he attended the 32nd International Mayors Conference in Jerusalem,[11] where he was seen praying at the Western Wall,[12] and revealed that his wife's grandfather was a Sephardic Jew.[13]

On 10 October 2017, Nayib Bukele was expelled from the FMLN, accused by the FMLN Ethics Tribunal of promoting internal division and performing defamatory acts against the political party.[14][15] Nayib 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.[16]

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.[17] Nayib Bukele started the movement 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.[18]

Following the announcement of his presidential aspirations, he was opposed by both the ruling FMLN party on the political left, and ARENA on the right as they blocked any attempts for him to found his own political party and politically cancelled any party that he has attempted to use for his candidacy. He eventually joined the centre-right Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) party to mount his presidential bid.[19]

On 3 February 2019, Bukele announced that he had won the presidential elections. Challenger Hugo Martínez of the FMLN conceded defeat. He won 53% 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."[20] Bukele assumed office on 1 June 2019.[21] Bukele announced a cabinet of sixteen people made up of eight men and eight women. One of the last to be appointed was Maria Luisa Hayem who was the Minister of the Economy. They will serve until 2024.[22]

Nayib Bukele broke off diplomatic relations with Venezuela, expelling Venezuelan diplomats and recognizing Juan Guaidó as the new president of that country. His decision was welcomed by the United States Embassy.[23] However, he has been accused of taking millions of dollars from interval, a subsidiary of PdVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.[24] Bukele admitted he took the money, but claimed it was not part of any wrongdoing.

In the face of parliamentary opposition to a bill increasing funding to the police and armed forces, Bukele called on his supporters to rally, leading to armed forces occupying the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.[25]

In late April 2020, President Nayib Bukele imposed a lockdown on prisons containing gang members following a spate of violence that killed 77 people. Bukele blamed gang members for the recent outbreak, citing "intelligence information." As part of the government's crackdown, gang members were locked in crowded cells for 23 hours a day; cells were barricaded with plywood and sheets of metal; mobile and wifi signals were blocked, and rival gang members were mixed together.[26][27][28] Human Rights Watch has criticised the treatment of prisoners as a violation of human rights and a health risk in the midst of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in El Salvador.[27]

Bukele also sparked controversy by signing a decree to extend lockdown during Covid-19, without the approval of the Salvadoran Congress. The Supreme Court declared his move unconstitutional.[29]

Bukele with wife Gabriela Rodríguez at a government event. (2014)

Although Nayib was born into a Christian household, his father converted to Islam later in life. As the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, Bukele's religious beliefs were a controversial subject in the 2019 election,[30] with an image surfacing showing Bukele praying at the mosque in Mexico City.[31] The Times of Israel published an image dated February 2018 of Bukele "in deep reflection at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City."[32]

Bukele has publicly stated that his family is Roman Catholic and that while his father and several other family members have converted to Islam,[31] he considers himself a believer in God first rather than religion.[33] 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.” In a 2019 Facebook post Bukele stated that he's “not religious".[32]

He married Gabriela Rodríguez, "a psychologist and educator", in December 2014. In 2018, Bukele told the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, that Rodríguez has "Jewish-Sephardic blood".[32]

Nayib's brother, Emerson Bukele, is an Imam, the spiritual leader of the Islamic community in El Salvador.[34][35] He took up the position in late 2015, succeeding his father Armando Bukele Kattán.[36][37]

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• Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)