El Salvador’s finance minister fears that the Bitcoin Bonds will have to wait for a while. Among other things, the volatility that Bitcoin currently exhibits and the moderate price performance, according to the minister, do not make it a good time to market the bonds. Meanwhile, the country is also facing a humanitarian crisis.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bonds
The plan for El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bonds was announced in November 2021 by President Nayib Bukele. With the sale of the bonds, El Salvador wants to raise a total of $1 billion. Half of that will be used for the construction of “Bitcoin City”. A city that Bukele wants to set up next to a volcano to take advantage of the volcanic energy. Not only for powering the city, but also for mining Bitcoin.
The bond round was originally scheduled for March 2022. But in an interview in March, just before the launch, the country’s finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, announced that the funding round would be postponed to June or even September 2022. Due to the minister’s statements in the aforementioned interview, it seems It seems that the Bitcoin Bonds of El Salvador are still a while away. However, that is not the only problem El Salvador is currently dealing with.
Humanitarian crisis in El Salvador
Amnesty International, a non-profit organization that champions human rights, has told the government of El Salvador accused of gross human rights violations. This includes the arbitrary arrest of people and the ill-treatment and even ill-treatment of prisoners. On March 27, President Nayib Bukele announced a so-called State of Emergency (SoE). According to Bukele, this was necessary to put a stop to organized crime.
According to Amnesty International, this has led to legislative changes that undermine a number of human rights. More than 35,000 people were jailed in less than three months during the SoE. This means that 1.7 percent of the population over the age of 18 is in prison. This results in overcrowded prisons that are currently running at 250 percent of capacity. Despite that, Bukele remains immensely popular in the country. According to the latest polls 87 percent of the population still supports Bukele.
