Nayib Bukele, the “cool dictator” who radically changed El Salvador

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is not afraid of being called an authoritarian or a human rights violator. At the height of his popularity, he was described as the “cool dictator” who transformed and saved a country terrorized by criminal gangs.

With the support of 90% of Salvadorans, this 42-year-old millennial publicist, the most popular president in Latin America according to Latinobarómetro 2023, is almost certain to be re-elected in Sunday’s elections.

“The Saviour “It went from being the most dangerous country in the world to being the safest in Latin America.”says the president, who says gangs have killed at least 120,000 people since the civil war ended in 1992.

At his request, Congress established in March 2022 a exceptional regime under which more than 75,000 alleged gang members were arrested. The number of murders has plummeted.

But around 7,000 innocent people were freed. Human rights organizations report arbitrary arrests, torture or deaths in prison. In response, he accuses them of defending gang members.

Despite the accusations and controversies, his fame has crossed borders and extended to other countries on the continent. There are voices calling for “a Bukele” to stop the crime.

Accompanied by the army and police, he went to the opposition-dominated Congress in February 2020 to solicit a loan for his security policy.

The following year he obtained an overwhelming parliamentary majoritywhich allowed him to dismiss the public prosecutor and the judges of the Constitutional Chamber who then allowed his candidacy for re-election, prohibited by the Constitution.

With his hair gelled and his beard carefully trimmed, he usually wears tight sweaters. Never tie. Nor does he make grandiloquent speeches, but take care of the scene for postcard-style images.

Under urgent circumstances, Bukele reacted forcefully: when gangs spread rumors that they would kill people at random in response to the crackdown, they threatened to leave imprisoned gang members without food.

He popularized the phrase “money is enough when no one steals,” but his opponents criticize him for not being accountable to anyone.

Before becoming president, he catapulted his image on social networks, where he usually writes in English.

Makes important announcements via Xin which he calls himself a “philosopher king” and mocks his critics.

“A cult phenomenon that settled in the country”thanks to its media apparatus on social networks, summarizes the research director of the Francisco Gavidia University, Óscar Picardo.

However, it failed to convince Salvadorans to massively use bitcoin, which Bukele introduced as legal tender in 2021 on par with the dollar.

He was born on July 24, 1981 in San Salvador. He is the son of the industrial chemist and representative of the Palestinian community Armando Bukele (died 2015) and Olga Ortez.

As a child “he was always seen smiling, he was never seen desperate,” architect Marleny Carranza, who worked at Bukele companies, told AFP.

“I was a normal student“Óscar Picardo, who was his teacher in high school, told AFP.

Since then he has already shown his sarcastic style. In the school yearbook he was described as a “class terrorist”.

He studied law at the Central American University, but he didn’t graduateand chose to work from the age of 18 in his father’s advertising agency who campaigned for the left-wing Farabundo Martí Front (FMLN, former guerrilla).

In those years he was also the director of a nightclub in San Salvador.

He began his political career in 2012 and under the banner of the FMLN He was mayor of the city of Nuevo Cuscatlán and of the Salvadoran capital from 2015 to 2018.

After an incident with a councillor, he was expelled from the FMLN in 2017. “I don’t consider myself either right or left,” Bukele says now.

He rose to the top of power in 2019 connecting with the young and disillusioned on both sides who took turns in government after the civil war (1980-1992).

Not very tolerant of criticism, he has a small circle of trust where his brothers Karim, Yusef and Ibrajim are found. In his government he included former classmates from the bilingual school where he studied.

He married Gabriela Rodríguez, a psychologist and dancer, in 2014, with whom he has two daughters, Layla and Aminah.

AFP agency