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Who is Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador seeking reelection? Career, family, net worth...
The young president of the central American country seems set to win his second election as his clenched-fist approach to security proves popular.
Late on Sunday night, Nayib Bukele claimed victory in his second run for El Salvador’s president. He claimed to have received 85% of the vote, a huge majority that would give his party, Nuevas Ideas, a huge majority in parliament that would render the country a near-one party state. Until a constitutional revision by the Supreme Court a president could never run for reelection until the 2024 vote.
“All together the opposition was pulverized,” Bukele told his supporters. “El Salvador went from being the most unsafe (country) to the safest. Now in these next five years, wait to see what we are going to do.”
A siginificant factor in Bukele’s popularity is his approach to violence, specifically gang violence. On 27 March, 2022, Bukele instituted a state of emergency. Until then, the Salvadoran Government maintained pacts with criminal gangs to reduce the number of homicides, in exchange for benefits for gang leaders. There was a peak in homicides in which 87 people died in a single day.
This state of emergency gave the government and police sweeping powers to detain suspected gang members. At present, 2% of the adult population are in prison. This has played a part in the annual murder rate falling from 103 per 100,000, to 2.4 per 100,000. For context, the US national homicide rate is 6.3 per 100,000.
A December report from Amnesty International criticised the “gradual replacement of gang violence with state violence”. There is no right to ask for an attorney when arrested and authorities do not need a reason for detaining a prisoner. Amnesty International denounced the “mistreatment and torture , flagrant violations of due process , forced disappearances and the death of at least 132 people in the custody of the State.”
But this policy has been undeniably popular with the electorate. Channel 26 reports 90% of the inhabitants are in favor of the emergency regime and that 97.7% of the country believes that crime was reduced after the state of emergency. For a nation wracked by gang violence for years, people were more than happy to lose some personal freedoms.
Nayob Bukele in more detail
Born on July 24, 1981, Bukele entered politics and gained prominence through his unconventional and charismatic style. Prior to his presidency, Bukele served as the Mayor of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, from 2015 to 2018. He was affiliated with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) but was expelled from the party in 2017. The FMLN received single digit support in the 2024 election.
He is married to Gabriela Rodríguez de Bukele who became his Secretary for Women whle he was mayor.
Celebrity Net Worth estimates he is worth $2 million.