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When El Salvador first announced its foray into Bitcoin as a means of legal tender I have to admit I was a huge skeptic. The leader of the nation is a relatively young guy and so the idea of over promising and under delivering was a glaring issue to me. Being from Texas and spending vacations close to the border I grew up knowing that safety in some Central American countries has been an ongoing issue for years. El Salvador was really a poster child of this issue.
A Brief History Lesson
While the gang that really highlights the issue, MS-13, was founded in Los Angelous in the 1970’s-1980’s the US…. Well they exported this gang to El Salvador. In 1992 when El Salvador’s civil war was over the deportation illegal Salvadorians really kicked off. During this same time individuals who were members of the gang were also finishing up prison sentences and being deported back to El Salvador as well. This created a terrible situation with a country coming out of internal disarray having a fully functioning, highly organized criminal empire move in.
Over the years MS-13 and other gangs like it have really managed to get a hold of parts of society much like the Mexican Cartels have done. This spills over into the prison system in El Salvador where multiple high security prisons have been found to be completely controlled by the inmates and honestly seem to be a lot like Pablo Escobar when he built his personal private prison.
Current Day
With these issues know and sadly a part of society a recent development in the government/gang relations made the news.
This accusation and now the sanctions the US has put into place on two officials hits one of the huge and core victories to the Presidents success. Beside the foray into Bitcoin President Nayib Bukele has pointed to how he has delivered on his promise to lower the homicide rates in the country. Since he pulled this off his party won a landslide into power and the people tasked with investigating this report were fired and some were actually in turn arrested with little to no evidence at best.
The US and El Salvador currently have extremely frayed ties and this won’t exactly help. While you could say this is US meddling President Bukele did send the military into Congress to pass the bills he wanted this year and also “fired” 5 of the 15 judges on the Supreme Court for getting in his way. Even with these concerning moves he has remained popular at home however he has successfully removed the check and balances in his way which could set up for disaster ahead.
Impact on Bitcoin City
While I am trying not to jump to any conclusions the trend that is emerging is very concerning. Then having this country and President with these accusations and issues surrounding him leading the charge for Bitcoin City doesn’t look good publicly. I also hate that with these gang accusations politicians and regulators could try and take this issue and highlight it as the “proof” of criminals using Bitcoin.
As much as I want this project to succeed and to highlight how Bitcoin and crypto can help develop countries I don’t think any of us want gangs involved in the development. Having a government that is cutting deals to keep crime down by giving the criminal organizations what they want emboldens those organizations to seek more. At the end of the day though I am not sure there is an easy or quick solution. There is still a very likely possibility that Bitcoin City fails to develop as planned especially with COVID constantly changing and disrupting travel. Gangs though and those people associated with them cannot be involved though or even if the city is built and boosts the country Bitcoin and blockchain will get a black eye from it.
Please know I am not a financial advisor I am just someone who picked up on a trend and wanted to express it! Makes sure you always do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a couple of referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it!
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