| Nayib Bukele | |
|---|---|
| |
| Official portrait, 2019 | |
| 81st President of El Salvador | |
| In office 1 June 2019 – 16 September 2022 | |
| Vice President | Félix Ulloa |
| Preceded by | Salvador Sánchez Cerén |
| Succeeded by | None |
| Mayor of San Salvador | |
| In office 1 May 2015 – 30 April 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Norman Quijano |
| Succeeded by | Ernesto Muyshondt |
| Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán | |
| In office 1 May 2012 – 30 April 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Álvaro Rodríguez |
| Succeeded by | Michelle Sol |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez 24 July 1981 San Salvador, El Salvador |
| Died | September 16, 2022 (aged 41) San Salvador, El Salvador |
| Political party | Nuevas Ideas (since 2017) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse(s) | Gabriela Rodríguez (m. 2014; d. 2022) |
| Children | 2 |
| Occupation | Politician, businessman |
| Signature | Nayib Bukele (Dies Irae)'s signature |
Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (24 July 1981 - 16 September 2022) was a Salvadoran politician and businessman who served as the 81st president of El Salvador from 2019 until his assassination in 2022. As a member of the Nuevas Ideas political party, Bukele was the first Salvadoran president since 1989 who was not elected as a candidate of one of the country's two major political parties: the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) or the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), of which Bukele had previously been a member.
Bukele established an advertising company in 1999 and worked at an advertising company owned by his father, Armando Bukele Kattán; both companies advertised election campaigns for the FMLN. In 2011, Bukele announced that he would enter politics. The following year, 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 Nuevas Ideas 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.
Bukele implemented the Territorial Control Plan in July 2019, an anti-gang program that sought to reduce the country's 2019 homicide rate of 38 per 100,000 people. Homicides decreased by 50 percent during Bukele's first year in office and he attributed it to the plan. 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 crackdown on gangs. This, however, resulted in it backfiring on Bukele, resulting in a spike of gang activity against the Salvadoran government itself. In 2022, Bukele was shot and killed by a Salvadoran gang.