Asier Vera Guatemala City

Guatemala city

Updated Monday, February 12, 2024-01:41

  • El Salvador The images of Bukele's megaprison: the largest prison in America

Nayib Bukele proclaimed himself the winner of the elections in El Salvador without waiting to know the official results. He did it in a massive event on the balcony of the National Palace, where he was not alone. He was accompanied by his partner,

Gabriela Rodríguez de Bukele,

whom he married in 2014 after a

relationship of more than ten years.

They had their first child in August 2019, a

girl named Layla

, shortly after assuming power in June of that year, while in November 2023 their

second daughter, Aminah,

was born . Bukele always shows his love on social networks for his wife, who is a psychologist, educator and dancer, with romantic statements such as "I am a happier man thanks to you and our family."

The

first lady

was born in 1985 and is the daughter of a Salvadoran man and a Nicaraguan woman. She was part of the Fundación Ballet de El Salvador dance company and founded and directed the first prenatal teaching center in this country. Thanks to her work on early childhood, breastfeeding and food security issues, El Salvador was designated as one of the two guardian countries of the breastfeeding rooms at the UN headquarters in New York.

"Not only is she my wife, she is my complement and I am hers

. Whoever votes me for public office knows that she comes with the package. That's how we are, a team since we met," said Bukele, who has counted on Gabriela in his Government to select part of the cabinet related to social, education and health.

She is not the only important woman in her family, since her mother,

Olga Ortez

, is also very present in her life.

"I love you mom.

Thank you for giving me life and always supporting me, since before I learned to say a single word. Now,

directing the course of our country

. I hope you are always proud of me," Bukele wrote on her networks. She does not usually attend public events, although in 2021, she laid the first stone of a walkway in a children's hospital.

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The person who governed El Salvador between 2019 and 2023 and who aspires to

renew his mandate for five more years

once the vote count is completed, comes from a wealthy Arab-Latin American family. This community has been characterized by having great economic and purchasing power in the region, which allowed Bukele, born on July 24, 1981, to always be close to money and influential people.

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The 'war against gangs' catapults Nayib Bukele to re-election after flouting the Constitution

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His ancestors are Palestinian on his father's side,

Armando Bukele Kattán,

son of migrants from Belén who moved to El Salvador in the mid-20th century. He was an

industrial chemist

and, although his ancestors were Christians,

he converted to Islam

and was a

devout Muslim

, to the point that he became president of the Arab Islamic Association of El Salvador.

He founded four mosques,

including the first in the Central American country, becoming one of the first imams in Latin America.

He married Olga Marina Ortez

, born in Concepción de Oriente (El Salvador) and of Catholic religion, with whom he had

four children: Nayib, Karim, Yusef and Ibrajim.

Bukele has six other siblings

(four women and two men) from five previous relationships with his father, who died in 2015 at age 70.

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Although Bukele studied Legal Sciences, he did not finish it and from the age of 18, he began working in several of his father's companies.

"For me there has never been a better man than my father

and people know it," Bukele stressed in an interview in which he praised his figure by considering that he was "the most intelligent man that our country has ever given birth to."

In his first government, Bukele

placed his three brothers in his circle of power,

Karim and the twins Ibrajim and Yusef, although they never held any public office.

Karim

was his campaign manager and is

the person he trusts most to make political decisions

. According to the digital newspaper

El Faro

,

Yusef

is Bukele's right-hand man in the

economic cabinet

, acting as an intermediary between the private sector and the Government, while

Ibrajim

is the emissary for negotiations and

in charge of recruiting personnel for the Executive.

Another of Bukele's brothers, son of his father's previous marriage,

Yamil Alejandro Bukele Pérez

, is the president of the National Sports Institute of El Salvador, while one of his cousins,

Xavier Zablah Bukele

is the president of Nuevas Ideas , the party with which he swept the elections. A whole

family network that clings to power.