Félix Ulloa

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ulloa and the second or maternal family name is Garay.

Félix Ulloa
Ulloa in 2023
37th Vice President of El Salvador
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 June 2019
President	Nayib Bukele
Preceded by	Óscar Ortiz
Personal details
Born	(1951-04-06) 6 April 1951 Chinameca, San Miguel, El Salvador
Political party	Nuevas Ideas (from 2023) Independent (until 2023)
Spouse	Lilian Alvarenga de Ulloa ​ ​ (m. 1973)​
Children	3
Education	Complutense University of Madrid (JD)
Website	www.presidencia.gob.sv/vicepresidencia

Félix Augusto Antonio Ulloa Garay (born 6 April 1951) is a Salvadoran politician, speaker, professor, and lawyer who has been serving as the Vice President of El Salvador since 1 June 2019.

Biography

Early life

Ulloa was born in Chinameca, in the department of San Miguel, on 6 April 1951. His parents were Margarita Garay and Félix Ulloa, later the rector of the University of El Salvador, who was killed in an attack carried out by paramilitaries.

Education and legal career

Ulloa obtained his law degree from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, in 1979, and received his PhD in Law cum laude. He completed postgraduate studies in Public Policy and Public Administration at the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris, France, and at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota, United States. He also completed a postgraduate degree in Banking and Finance at the Technological University of El Salvador (UTEC).

Félix Ulloa actively participated in the university student movement, being president of the Student Electoral Tribunal of the General Association of Salvadoran University Students (AGEUS). As a lawyer, he was a member of the Legal Aid of the Externado San José, leader of the Workers Union of the Salvadoran Institute of Social Security, and later of the National Union of Salvadoran Workers. During the Salvadoran Civil War, he created the Institute of Legal Studies of El Salvador (ILSEL) with several other lawyers. He has been president of the ILSEL on several occasions.

His experience and academic qualifications enabled him to be a professor of Political Science in the PhD program in Social Sciences at the University of El Salvador. Ulloa also taught various law courses at the Central American University. He was a visiting professor for several years at the Spanish School of Middlebury College in the U.S. state of Vermont, and a guest speaker at multiple universities in the Americas.

Early political career

After the civil war, Ulloa was elected as a Magistrate of the first Supreme Electoral Tribunal of El Salvador, where he served from 1994 to 1999. He also joined the Board of Surveillance of Political Parties from 1993 to 1994 and the Special Sub-Commission of the CO-PAZ. In 1992 and 1993, he edited the Electoral Code. Additionally, Ulloa was a part of the Political Commission of the National Revolutionary Movement Party, which was founded by his father and is affiliated with the Socialist International.

Constitutional reform

Ulloa presented constitutional amendments against laws that he believed supported an anti-democratic electoral system and impaired the ability of democracy to take hold. These constitutional resolutions substantially changed the electoral system, which was a product of the demands of unconstitutionality presented by Ulloa and other Salvadoran jurists. Ulloa successfully passed several amendments, including:

• Elimination of the "National List," which prevents senior political leaders from perpetuating themselves in the legislative branch. This was issued on 26 July 2010, by the Constitutional Chamber.
• Vote for face, allowing citizens to see the photograph of the candidate they are voting for.
• Vote crossed, enabling citizens to vote for several deputies and even from different political parties.
• Residential vote, allowing citizens and party militants to vote only in their municipality.
• Independent Deputies, allowing citizens without party militancy to run for the Legislative Assembly.

Presidential run

Following an invitation from Nayib Bukele to accompany him in the presidential formula of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), consisting of the political parties GANA, Democratic Change (CD), and Nuevas Ideas (NI); Ulloa ran for vice-president. Winning the elections of 3 February 2019, he became the Vice President-elect and took office on 1 June 2019 alongside President-elect Bukele.

Vice-presidential term

President Nayib Bukele appointed Ulloa to lead Central American Integration and the International Commission Against Impunity in El Salvador, which has the goal of combating corruption and impunity, inside and outside the state. He is in charge of leading the Trifinio Plan, a trinational treaty that involves the vice-presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, to improve the living conditions of border communities and to develop a process of environmental and territory management.

Ulloa attended the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla on 6 May 2023.

On 25 June 2023, Ulloa registered with Nuevas Ideas as a pre-candidate for a vice presidential re-election bid for the 2024 general election.

On 30 November 2023, Ulloa was granted a leave of absence by the Legislative Assembly to campaign for his re-election.

Personal life

He married psychologist Lilian Alvarenga de Ulloa in 1973, and has three children.

Publications

Ulloa has published academic articles in the United States, Mexico, Spain, France, Chile, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and in every country in Central America. Among them are articles entitled:

• Money and democracy
• Politics, state and society; Democratic thinking
• The role of political parties in Central American institutions
• The Salvadoran electoral system, 25 years after the signing of the Peace Agreements
• The utopia continues
• Haiti: 200 years of Elections and Constitutions
• La Crise de la Démocratie Représentative
• Le Systéme Électoral des États-Unis

Awards and decorations

• SICA: Grand Cross of the Order of Francisco Morazán (25 September 2023)