What is Nayib Bukele’s political ideology?
- LatamSinFiltro
- Sep 21
- 9 min read
Once again we are talking about Nayib Bukele on Latam Sin Filtro. I previously published a study in March 2025 in which I attempted to objectively assess his first presidential term in respect of economy and security. Here is the link to the article:
In this case-study, I briefly explained that it was quite difficult to say whether Nayib Bukele was a right-wing or left-wing politician, and honestly I didn't spend much time on this topic because that wasn't really my goal. However I think that many of us still don’t have an answer to this question: what is Bukele’s political ideology?
Nayib Bukele is the son of a Palestinian businessman, Armando Bukele, a good friend of Schafick Handal, also a businessman who always had been close to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a left-wing party. While businessmen generally identify with right-wing values, Nayib Bukele, who ran several family businesses before beginning his political career, has always been quite close to the FMLN.
At first glance, this may seem a bit paradoxical but, the Salvadoran elite, as in many other Latin American countries, is made up of Creole families, often of European origin. It is a racist elite, because indeed there is still a class system based on race. This is one of the sad legacies of Spanish colonialism in Latin America. Although Nayib came from a wealthy family, his background prevented him from fully integrating into this elite, explaining Nayib's rejection of corrupt elites and traditional political parties. (Roque Baldovinos, 2022).
First years in politics: Mayor of San Salvador and presidential candidacy
Bukele entered politics in 2011 with the FMLN and officially began his career in 2012 when he became mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a small municipality of less than 10,000 inhabitants in the province of La Libertad. In 2015, he became mayor of the capital, San Salvador. From 2015 to 2018, Nayib Bukele led several projects of renovation of public spaces, developed the infrastructure of the city and launched several social inclusion initiatives. I often mention his "One Project a Day" initiative, through which new roads were built and several dilapidated buildings were renovated.
Accused of being a populist by the FMLN, he was expelled from the party in 2017. He then created his own party, Nuevas Ideas, which he was unable to register as a legal political party to participate in the 2019 presidential elections. He therefore ran with the center-right party, The Grand National Alliance, better known as GANA, and won the elections. Bukele's "outsider" and "anti-system" speech allowed him to gain popularity and reap the support of a large wave of people that had been showing discontent with the country's traditional parties and the government’s corruption. Yes, Bukele is a populist.
Nevertheless, I want you to be careful, you must not jump to conclusions. Being populist does not mean being right-wing, at least not in Latin America. There are left-wing populists (like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or Evo Morales in Bolivia) and right-wing populists (like Javier Milei in Argentina). It is also important to emphasize that populist movements in Latin America are not comparable to those in Europe or other continents. The definition of the term “populism” depends on the political culture, history and characteristics of the region (or even the country) studied (Bueno Romero, 2013). I would also like to point out that populism should not be systematically considered a negative concept and antidemocratic, although academic literature has shown that, in most cases, populist governments in the Latin American region tend to exclude the opposition from the political scene, and thus go against democratic principles. I already addressed the topic of democracy under Bukele in my case-study, so let's get back to Nayib, shall we?
His communication strategy and excellent use of social media made him popular, especially among the youth. Thanks to social media, Nayib Bukele has forged himself an image of a young visionary, an outsider and a center-left businessman.
In his inaugural speech in 2019, Bukele refers to many topics that are generally related to the left: the latter affirms that “social inclusion” is at the center of his commitments to Salvadorans; he speaks of “collective responsibility”; he mentions the deterioration of public services (education, health); he tells a story about his childhood and his father whose purpose is to address the issue of of social injustice; he says that there will be parity within his government (=feminism, gender equality); and he refers to “the most vulnerable people”.
That being said, Bukele also mention some values generally associated with the right like the famous traditional values, the importance of family (he talks a lot about his family and even compares El Salvador to a big family), the role of God (we tend to associate beliefs with the right, although I don't think it's so relevant, especially in Latin America) and nationalism.
His speech is quite short (less than 30 minutes), moderate and mainly focused on the Salvadoran people. The president does not present his political agenda (Bukele, 2019).
2019-2025: a rather conservative president
Although President Nayib Bukele's inaugural speech appeared moderate, Bukele's ideology has evolved since taking office.
Since becoming president, Nayib Bukele has adopted several far right measures, especially when it comes to security, using coercive means to reach his goals (Meléndez-Sánchez, 2023). Let’s not forget that Bukele's ability to participate and win the first presidential elections was partly possible thanks to his alliance with the center-right GANA party, thus gaining the support of conservative voters. Therefore, he must also respond to the demands of the more conservative sectors.
First, President Bukele has implemented a rather authoritarian policy of “mano dura”, to resolve the gang violence problem in the country. The implementation of the state of emergency and his Territorial Control Plan has been controversial, particularly due to the lack of fair trials and the mass arrests that were carried out without legitimate reasons.
When it comes to the economy, there is no doubt that President Bukele is pretty liberal, and the Bitcoin Law is a good example. On September 7, 2021, the Bitcoin Law came into effect, and Bitcoin became a legal currency and a fiat money. This law is a first in the world. Bukele likely wanted to show that the new El Salvador is a financially innovative country, hoping to attract new foreign investment. The president presented this bill as a proposal aimed at reducing socioeconomic inequalities and developing the Salvadoran economy.
Between 2021 and 2024, 188 investigations related to the Bitcoin law were published (Ultreras-Rodríguez et al., 2025). These investigations led to the conclusion that due to the volatility and the speculative nature of Bitcoin as well as the country's low banking rate, this law was not really adopted to promote the country's economic development nor to help the Salvadoran population. Academic literature suggests that this law was adopted to please businessmen, the elite and other members of the oligarchy of El Salvador (Vázquez, 2022). We can point out the fact that President Bukele announced the implementation of this new law during a private investors conference in Miami (Sermeño Quezada, 2022).
To conclude on this point, Nayib Bukele showed an attachment to the traditional values. His social agenda has never been really progressive; President Bukele is rather conservative. He does not support abortion. Furthermore, in 2019, he decided to dissolve the Department of Social Inclusion and the Office of Sexual Diversity (Agencia Presentes, 2021). This organization's goals included defending the rights of LGBTQ+ people and protecting them from discrimination. The president is opposed to the “gender theory.” In 2024, he banned content evoking gender theory in schools (La Nación, 2024).
Other authors would probably mention here the fact that Nayib Bukele believes in God which apparently makes him automatically a conservative. I want to point out that many Latin Americans are believers; there are many Catholics and, in general, many Christians. According to the market research firm Ipsos (2021), in the Latin American countries studied, more than 50% of the population considers themselves Christian. Being a believer does not mean being right-wing. This is something I tend to criticize in current discourses linking faith and politics.
In conclusion, President Bukele maintains good relationships with various far-right presidents such as Donald Trump in the United States or Javier Milei in Argentina. In 2025, Nayib Bukele offered the U.S President to deport illegal immigrants to his mega-prison for terrorist. In 2024, President Bukele visited Argentina and met with Javier Milei. It is also worth mentioning his visit to Tesla factories in Texas in 2024 and his meeting with Elon Musk, a figure associated with the American far right.
Despite everything, Nayib Bukele is also in favor of a Welfare state. His government has invested in several infrastructure projects across the country: it has invested more than $255 million in the renovation of 200 schools (Government of El Salvador, 2025), financed the construction of the new San Miguelito market, and the renovation of the San Antonio and Carolina bridges. Several other road renovation projects have been carried out by the Bukele government. At a press conference held in August 2025 for the inauguration of the San Miguelito market, the president said he was in favor of public services and infrastructure: "I have always said that the public sector must be better than the private sector."
Finally, in December 2022, President Bukele implemented a pension reform which involved a 30% increase in pensions for most contributors. It is a redistributive reform aiming at creating a public pension fund.
Conclusion
In conclusion we have seen that at the beginning of his political career, Nayib Bukele was a rather moderate, center-left politician. Since coming to power, President Bukele has pursued several right-wing and even far-right policies, particularly when it comes to security. According to his own statement, he belongs "neither to the right nor to the left" (TIME, 2024).
The evolution of his ideology and the constant shifts between left and right policies lead us to think that Bukele may simply be an opportunist.
The most problematic opinion shift that Nayib Bukele has had is without any doubt his vision on democracy, reelection and respect of the Constitution. In 2013, when he was mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, he declared in a TV interview for a Nicaraguan talkshow that non-reelection was necessary to respect the will of the people (Meléndez-Sánchez, 2023). “The Salvadorian Constitution does not allow the same person to be president twice in a row. He can be president 80 times if he wishes, but not consecutively.”
(El Show de Patico, 2011).
However, in August 2025, the Salvadorian Congress approved a constitutional reform allowing someone to run for president as many times he wishes to. This reform was, of course, supported by President Bukele himself and his party, Nuevas Ideas.
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