Report: El Salvador's government bought Bitcoin with Covid relief funds

[Judi Lynn]

2. From 2020, earlier article: The Bukele Clan that Rules with Nayib

Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Jimmy Alvarado, Gabriel Labrador y Sergio Arauz

After defeating the two opposing political and ideological forces that had ruled El Salvador since the end of the Cold War, Nayib Bukele took office in June 2019. Nearing his 39th birthday, he is the most popular president in the country’s democratic history. He is well-known for his communication skills, conspicuous selfies, confrontations with the other branches of government, surprising success in reducing the country’s murder rate, and his aggressive and controversial management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not as well-known is the reality that he governs with his three younger brothers — Karim Alberto (33), and Yusef Alí and Ibrajim Antonio (30-year-old twins) — who comprise the nucleus of a family clan that teams up with the president in most of his decisions. They’re all sons of father Armando Bukele Kattán, who died in 2015, and mother Olga Marina Ortez. While they don’t officially hold any public office, for the last year they’ve been functioning as if they were essential cabinet ministers.

Although there are 16 appointed ministers, six presidential secretaries and three commissioners, numerous sources consulted by El Faro confirm that the Bukele Ortez brothers are sometimes the only ones involved in important government decisions. They also note that a hierarchy exists even within this small leadership group. The president and Karim are the strategists who define the direction of the presidency. Yusef and Ibrajim are advisors who gather information and have their brother’s ear. Since they don’t have official government positions, none are subject to any laws regulating public employee accountability.



Nayib Bukele’s mother, Olga Ortez, and his brothers Karim, Ibrajim and Yusef (from right to left) at the president’s inauguration on June 1, 2019. Photo available on Karim Bukele’s Facebook page.

During the 20 years that Arena was in power, most major strategic decisions were made by people who represented the country’s greatest fortunes, whether or not they held government positions or were even Arena party members. The decision-makers during the 10 years of FMLN governments were the old high command, the same small group of guerrillas that led the FMLN during the civil war and that signed the 1992 peace agreement (although from 2009 to 2014 during the first FMLN government, decision-making power was held by the Cáceres family, Mecafé and Herbert Saca). Now, 30 years after the end of the war, the most important decision-making core of the presidency is dominated by one family: the Bukele clan.

Just beyond the inner circle, but still under the clan’s control, are the cousins that Nayib grew up with − Xavier Zablah Bukele (the president of Nuevas Ideas) and his brother, Francisco. In the next circle of trust are the president’s private secretary, Ernesto Castro and his wife, Michelle Sol (Minister of Housing), the president’s legal counsel, Conan Castro, and Carolina Recinos, the commissioner for the president’s cabinet. There are also some childhood friends and former schoolmates (Escuela Panamericana) of the president who have been appointed to public office: Federico Anliker (an airplane pilot and president of CEPA), Fernando López Larreynaga (Minister of the Environment), and María Luisa Hayem (Minister of the Economy). President Bukele’s wife, Gabriela Rodríguez, is considered to be in charge of the Secretariat for Social Inclusion and is also its main recruiter.

More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202006/el_salvador/24542/The-Bukele-Clan-that-Rules-with-Nayib.htm