Najib Abu Kaila is a Salvadoran politician and businessman of Palestinian origin. He was born in 1981 in the city of San Salvador, Republic of El Salvador. He worked at an early age of no more than 19 years in the field of entrepreneurship, then went to political work in 2012 to become within 7 years the sixth president of the country.
His victory in the presidency of El Salvador was seen as a political earthquake, given that he is a candidate from outside the two largest major parties that have been accustomed to alternating power since the end of the country's civil war in 1992.
Birth and upbringing
Naguib Abu Kaila was born on July 24, 1981 in the capital, San Salvador, to a Palestinian father whose origins go back to the city of Bethlehem. He is the influential Christian doctor and businessman, Armando Abu Kaila Kattan, who later converted to Islam, then became an imam of a mosque in El Salvador that he built near his textile factory. .
His mother is Salvadoran Olga Ortaz, and he has 3 brothers, Youssef, Karim and Ibrahim. He married in 2015 from Salvadoran Gabriela Rodriguez.
His father died in 2017, two years before he assumed the presidency of the country, so Abu Kaila turned to entrepreneurship to follow in his father's footsteps, and he succeeded in his field.
Study and formation
Abu Kaila studied law at the University of Central America "José Simeon Canas" "UCA" (UCA), which is the local and main university in El Salvador, the most moderate, given the control of left-wing thought over the national university "UES".
He did not obtain a university degree because he dropped out of school and turned to the business world at an early age, as he aspired to become a manager of a private company.
political march
He began his political career on March 11, 2012, when he succeeded in reaching the mayoralty of the small suburb of Nuevo Cuscatlan, and was nominated by the left-wing Farabundo Marti Front.
He was able to attract the attention of the leaders of the Front through his distinctive personality and style that is unusual in a political scene contested by a bilateral attraction between the Farabundo Marti Front on the one hand and the National Republican Alliance on the other, to become the most suitable candidate for the Front to run in the mayoral elections of the capital, San Salvador, which the National Alliance won. presided over in previous elections.
Indeed, in 2015 he managed to win the presidency of the municipality of San Salvador, the capital, which made him declare his interest in the position of president of the country.
In February 2018, Bukele visited Israel as the mayor of San Salvador, accompanied by his Salvadoran wife, Gabriela Rodriguez.
In Jerusalem, he met the mayor of the Israeli occupation, Nir Barkat, as well as the mayor of Tel Aviv, and participated in Jewish rituals at the Al-Buraq Wall and Mount Herzl in occupied Jerusalem.
Najib Abu Kaila (center), his wife Gabriela Rodriguez, and Vice President Felix Ulua (Anadolu Agency)
This visit was denounced by the Palestinian community in El Salvador, and expressed its anger at Abu Kaila's "denial" of his Palestinian origins and the history of his father, who was one of the most well-known figures in the country defending the Palestinian cause.
On October 7, 2017, his repeated criticism of the leaders of the Farabundo Marti Front led to his expulsion after accusing him of encouraging internal division and political defamation against the party, in addition to Abu Kaila deliberately absenting himself from the session scheduled by the party's ethics committee, which he saw as biased in favor of Plaintiffs.
His expulsion from the front made him direct his interests towards the position of President of El Salvador and preparing to run for the 2019 presidential elections, presenting himself as an independent candidate who rejects the existing political system in the country, but he faced a constitutional obstacle preventing the candidacy of non-members of a political party licensed by the authorities, which made him announce his intention to form a party It was called the Nuevas Ideas Movement so that it could run.
Abu Kaila's declaration of his presidential aspirations made the leftist "Farabundo Marti Front" and the conservative "Republican National Alliance" meet to thwart his project to establish his own political party.
Eventually Bukele managed to join a small center-right party known as the Grand Alliance for National Unity, known by its initials GANA, which means "to win" in Spanish.
On February 3, 2019, the Electoral Court in El Salvador announced that Najib Abu Kaila won the presidency of the country, since the first round, after he won 54% of the vote against his main competitor, the wealthy businessman Carlos Cayeja, a member of the "National Republican Alliance" party, which came in second place. With 32% of the vote, Hugo Hernandez, the candidate of the ruling FMLN, received the support of only 14% of the electorate.
A demonstration to protest against the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, in San Salvador on September 15, 2022 (Reuters)
Contrasting communication style
During his presidency of the municipality of San Salvador, Naguib Abu Kaila was able to restore the historic center of the city, which his predecessors failed to do. He was also the first mayor to give up his monthly salary and turn it into scholarships for outstanding students from poor El Salvadoran families.
Abu Kaila was also known for his realistic speeches, in which he dealt with issues directly affecting the citizens of El Salvador looking for safety - and for whom the specter of civil war still looms - and the fight against corruption and the war on criminal gangs and drug traffickers.
Najeeb Abu Kaila has strong persuasive abilities that made him not find it difficult to talk to the masses and voters, relying on revolutionary speeches calling for a change in the political and social reality, and on the rules of youth dress from leather jackets, sports caps and active accounts on social networking sites, which made it easier for him to attract The young age group aspiring to change.
It is noteworthy that in September 2019, after assuming the presidency of El Salvador, he began his first speech from the platform of the United Nations General Assembly by taking a selfie, which aroused the approval of some and the disapproval of others, especially his opponents.
criticism
His opponents accuse him of superficiality in dealing with the country's security and economic files, in addition to his delinquency in some behaviors that his opponents say remind El Salvador of the eras of dictatorship and absolute autocracy.
In February 2020, military and security forces stormed the Salvadoran parliament building, followed by the entry of Abu Kaila. This incident was interpreted as a way to pressure the deputies to ratify a $109 million loan to equip the armed forces in their war against criminal gangs.
At the end of 2022, Abu Kaila announced his candidacy for a second term of 5 years, which lawyers saw as a violation of the constitution (Getty Images)
In April 2020, Bukele authorized the use of lethal force by the police and army against gang members to stem the increase in violence that had erupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since assuming power in 2019, the president has also clashed with constitutional judges, the judiciary, and parliament, which was then dominated by the right-wing Arena party and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (a former Marxist rebel movement).
In May 2021, Parliament voted to dismiss Supreme Court judges who oppose President Abu Kaila, in a move that the opposition included in the category of a coup, while the judges appointed to replace them accused them of being involved in corruption and issuing arbitrary sentences.
Following the political crisis that followed the dismissal of the judges - which had international repercussions rejecting this approach - the Supreme Court in El Salvador issued in September 2021 a decision allowing President Abu Kaila to run for a second term in the 2024 presidential elections.
In September 2022, he announced that he would seek re-election for a second 5-year term, which lawyers considered a violation of at least 4 articles of the constitution, including the article that limits the presidential term to only 5 years, and specifically states that the president who expires His presidency will not continue in his duties another day.
Jobs and responsibilities
Owner of Yamaha Motor Company in El Salvador, which is the exclusive agent for Yamaha products in the country.
President and CEO of Ubermate.