El Salvador’s Bukele Rejects U.S. Senators’ Investigation Request for Adopting BTC

• Three U.S. senators distrust the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in the Central American country.
• The president of El Salvador responded that his country is not a colony of the United States and asked the congressmen to stay out of the country’s internal affairs.
• Congressmen fear that the growing use of cryptocurrencies will strengthen China and criminal organizations.

President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele strongly asserted that his country is not the backyard of the United States in response to a request from three US senators to the State Department for an investigation into the risks of adopting Bitcoin, reported Reuters.

Bukele struck back in response to congressmen Jim Risch, Bob Méndez and Bill Cassidy, who this week asked the Joe Biden government to present a report on the economic risks facing the U.S. after the Central American country legalized BTC as legal tender.

“Ok, boomers (generation before yours)… You have no jurisdiction over a sovereign and independent nation,” the controversial 40-year-old president wrote on his Twitter account.

“We are not your neighborhood, your backyard or your front yard. Stay out of our internal affairs. Don’t try to control something you can’t control,” Bukele added.

Since the approval of the Bitcoin Law last September, the Salvadoran government has received strong criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for tying the fate of the country to cryptocurrency.

The multilateral credit organization asked El Salvador to revoke the law and instead observe that the adoption of Bitcoin poses very serious risks to the economy, and could even cause severe financial imbalances.

The Fears of the Congressmen

U.S. senators fear that the adoption of Bitcoin will also weaken the sanctions policy implemented by the U.S. government. They believe that it could lead to an increase in international crime by facilitating money laundering and the purchase of weapons.

"This new policy has the potential to weaken U.S. sanctions policy, empowering malign actors like China and organized criminal organizations," the senators expressed in a statement.

“Our bipartisan legislation seeks greater clarity on El Salvador's politics,” the congressmen further remarked.

Internally, the Salvadoran government has also been criticized by sectors of the opposition and economists due to the lack of transparency with which cryptocurrency purchases are made and these public funds are administered.

On the Flipside

• Public denunciations of corruption and growing authoritarianism have strained diplomatic relations between the White House and the government of El Salvador.

President Bukele, in recent months, has sought rapprochement with other world leaders similarly questioned by the U.S. government due to their anti-democratic practices. Such was the case with Turkey’s Tayyib Erdogan whom Bukele recently visited.