Nayib Bukele

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, born on 24 July 1981 in San Salvador, is a Salvadoran politician and entrepreneur who has held the office of the 81st president of El Salvador since 2019. His path to politics began in the private sector, where he launched an advertising firm in 1999 and later worked at his father Armando Bukele Kattán's agency, both of which handled campaign promotions for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). Entering public life in 2011, Bukele joined the FMLN the following year and was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, serving until his 2015 victory as mayor of San Salvador, a post he held until 2018. After being expelled from the FMLN in 2017, he founded the Nuevas Ideas party and sought the presidency in 2019. When the Supreme Electoral Court declined to register his party, he ran under the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA) banner, winning with 53% of the vote.

His administration introduced the Territorial Control Plan in July 2019, targeting a homicide rate of 38 per 100,000. Within a year, killings dropped by half. Following a weekend in March 2022 when gangs claimed 87 lives, Bukele launched a sweeping crackdown that led to over 85,000 arrests by December 2024, driving homicides down to 1.9 per 100,000—among the lowest in the Americas. In 2021, he made bitcoin legal tender and proposed Bitcoin City. The Legislative Assembly, under his influence, also reduced municipalities from 262 to 44 and legislative seats from 84 to 60 in June 2023. After a Supreme Court ruling allowed consecutive re-election, he won the 2024 race with 85% support.

Bukele enjoys enduring popularity, with approval ratings consistently