Nayib Bukele Seeks Legal Tender for Cryptocurrency – El Financiero

“Next week, I will be sending Congress a bill that would turn bitcoin into legal tender in El Salvador,” Bukele said. In the short term, this will create jobs and help in promotionFinancial inclusion of thousands of people outside the formal economy, And in the medium and long term, we hope that this small decision will help us take humanity at least a little in the right direction.”

The official currency in El Salvador is the US dollar. About a quarter of El Salvador’s citizens live in the United States, and last year, despite the pandemic, they sent home more than $6 billion in remittances.

The Bukele New Ideas party has an absolute majority in the new convention, which was formed on May 1, making approval of any legislative proposal from the president highly likely.

The original details of the plan were not disclosed. But in subsequent posts on Twitter, Bukele noted that bitcoin would be “the fastest way to get $6 billion annually in remittances.” He noted that many of these remittances have been lost to intermediaries, and more than one million low-income families could benefit from this change.

He also said that 70 percent of El Salvador’s population do not have a bank account and work in the informal economy. He noted that cryptocurrencies can improve financial inclusion.

Benefiting from his high popularity and his party’s good result in the February 28 elections, Bukele concentrated power. The vast majority of his congressional training allowed him to dismiss the judges of the Constitutional Circuit of the Supreme Court of Justice on May 1, as well as the attorney general.

Judges and the attorney general have criticized some of Bukele’s tough measures during the pandemic, such as Mandatory detention order and establishment of containment centers for detainees for violating quarantine.

The president had a positive relationship with former US President Donald Trump, but he has clashed more with the government of the current president, Joe Biden.

The White House’s special envoy to the Northern Triangle, Ricardo Zuniga, indicated last month during a visit to El Salvador that the US government wants El Salvador to reverse the dismissals of judges and the attorney general. Bukele ruled out this possibility.

The concentration of power during Bukele’s tenure, the attacks on his critics and his apparent rejection of the controls on his state raised concerns about El Salvador’s future. However, Bukele enjoys broad support due in part to the fact that the traditional parties that have ruled the country for 30 years have not improved people’s lives, as well as the president’s ability to deliver short-term benefits.

Bukele has been praised for his aggressive strategy to obtain COVID-19 vaccines and for running an effective vaccination program, which is far more successful than that of El Salvador’s neighbors.