Nayib Bukele brings Bitcoin to the UN General Assembly
“Greetings from the land of surf, volcanoes, coffee, peace, Bitcoin and freedom.” This is how Nayib Bukele began his speech at the UN General Assembly, which is held annually in New York.
Bukele dedicated his speech to “freedom” and used it to invoke the principle of a country’s sovereignty while criticizing rich and powerful countries that interfere in the affairs of their smaller and poorer neighbors.
Bukele made his point by comparing a poor country to someone trying to change the leaky roof of a house while more powerful neighbors pressured them to keep it. This euphemism is likely aimed at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States, as El Salvador struggles to find ways to pay off its debt while negotiating aid.
El Salvador’s government currently owes up to $24 billion in debtan amount that has accumulated exponentially since the military junta took power in 1979. The IMF estimates that the country’s debt will grow to $38 billion by 2027, and while it has praised El Salvador’s recent economic recovery after the Covid pandemic, it has been severely criticized Bukele’s Bitcoin -strategy.
Last year, El Salvador introduced legislation making bitcoin legal tender and has since spent $104 million on 2,301 bitcoins at a total price of around $45,100 per coin. The IMF has criticized these purchases, saying that “relying on leverage and thereby increasing public debt to invest in bitcoin with the expectation of its continuous price increase, while the market bides its time to acquire bitcoin, is not a permanent solution to ease funding constraints.” “
The country also recently announced that it will use 360 million dollars of its foreign reserves to buy back government bonds at a discount in an attempt to stem fears of default.
After his speech at UNGA, Bukele also appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show where the host praised Bukele’s apparently successful war on crime. El Salvador, with a population of just 6.5 million people, was previously considered one of the most dangerous places in the world, seeing more than 6,650 murders in 2015 alone.
The homicide rate has reduced significantly since then with a total of 1,140 people killed last year. Today, the capital San Salvador is ranked 24thth the most dangerous city in the world just behind Baltimore in the USA.
Read more: El Salvador may be broke, but it’s still throwing $200 million at Bitcoin Beach
Among other things, Bukele discussed with Carlson his threat to stop feeding incarcerated gang members if they continue to order murders behind bars. He described prisons as the headquarters of crime.
What Carlson did not mention is that the homicide rates in El Salvador have been declining since 2016 and Bukele came to power in 2019 when the trend in crime was already down. Bukele has ruffled feathers when he announced that he will seek re-election in 2024 despite the constitution stating that the president cannot sit consecutively.
Local opposition parties, groups and human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized and accused Bukele’s government of human rights violations. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos) has criticized the Bukele government for militarizing the state and the police, pointing to the increased cases of disappearances of people, and also noted a serious problem of misogyny, sexism and discrimination against women and LGBT people throughout society.
Bukele has also introduced emergency powers which he used to imprison up to 49,000 peoplebut despite this, he is said to enjoy high approval ratings in his country.
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