Published:
24 Jan 2023 13:46 GMT
His statements come after confirming that the Central American nation complied on time with the payment of its debt of 800 million dollars in Eurobonds, whose term expired on January 24.
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, criticized several international news outlets that in the last year predicted the failure of his economic commitment to convert bitcoin into legal tender in the country.
In a thread on Twitter in English published this Monday, Bukele referred to a series of journalistic articles, from newspapers such as The New York Times or The Washington Post, which assured that the Central American country I was bankrupt and was going to default‘. The foreign press pointed out that the nation would be unable to pay its debt of 800 million dollars in Eurobonds, whose term expired on January 24.
“Well, we just paid in full 800 million dollars plus interestbut, of course, almost no one is covering the story,” the president wrote, reiterating that, at the time, he called the attention of those media for his skepticism.
Full page spreads on the @nytimes and all, creating the narrative that El Salvador was broke and going to default. I called them out at the time, but of course, who was going to believe us and not every international news outlet and their “economic geniuses”? https://t.co/a3YCZUjRg2
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 24, 2023
“Who would believe us and not all the international media and their ‘economic geniuses’?” he added on the social network.
Bukele emphasizes that now that the default has not occurred, the same media that took it for granted have not raised their voices, as have many others who were betting on the same thing. He added that only found one item informing of the payment of the bond; It is a publication of the Colombian magazine Semana released this Tuesday.
“They lie and they lie and they lieand when their lies are discovered, they go into silent mode,” concluded the Salvadoran president.
Well, we just paid in full, 800 million dollars plus interest. But of course, almost nobody is covering the story. I just found one, yes ONE, in Spanish, from Colombia https://t.co/PcRES3poE1They lie and lie and lie, and when their lies are exposed, they go in silence mode.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 24, 2023
In March 2021, El Salvador approved the so-called Bitcoin Law, which made the country the first in the world to legalize the cryptocurrency. The measure, promoted by the Bukele government as its main bet for the Central American country, sought to protect the economy from possible inflationary impacts. However, the incorporation of the cryptocurrency has not given the expected results, because it has been affected by a strong depreciation of its value, which has compromised the invested State resources.
The situation increased the fears and lack of confidence of the population in the cryptocurrency. However, the Salvadoran government resorted to the purchase of sovereign debt bonds, not only to pay all its commitments, but also to buy all its own debt in advance. In accordance with local mediaof the 800 million dollars of debt, 196 were paid in repurchase operations in the last quarter of last year, and the remaining 604 million this January 23, in addition to 23.4 million interest.
