Edwin is the son of Syrian-Lebanese migrant Musa Abraham Besaile Jalife and Yolanda María Fayad from Cartagena, also of Middle Eastern ancestry. His father settled in Colombia in the early 1950s, working for other Middle Eastern migrants already established in the Sahagun region, and grew his business growing rice until he became the founder of one of the largest rice from the Colombian Caribbean coast, Arrocera Palmira.
