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El Salvador’s Finance Minister announces Bitcoin bond might delayed further due to market crisis

On June 1, El Salvador’s Finance Minister, Alejandro Zelaya, has said that the billion-dollar bitcoin (BTC) bond will be delayed further, citing price volatility and unpredictable market circumstances as a result of the continuing Russo-Ukrainian war. The announcement comes as Amnesty International accuses Salvadoran authorities of “flagrant violations of human rights and criminalising people living in poverty.”

On June 1, Zelaya was asked if the scenario for issuing $1 billion bitcoin bonds had altered since “a few months ago” in an interview on the local “Fente a Fronte” (face-to-face) news show.

“No not now, [Bitcoin] The price is hampered by the war in Ukraine,” he said, according to a rough translation. He said that “in the short term the variances are stable but in the long term it always appreciates in value.”

“There is a future and there is an economic innovation [in Bitcoin] that we must bet on.”

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele first unveiled the bond plan in November 2021. Half of the estimated $1 billion will go toward the creation of a “Bitcoin City” near a volcano, with the hope that geothermal energy from the volcano will be utilised to power bitcoin miners. The remaining half of the funds will be invested in bitcoin.

The $1 billion bond was initially intended to start in mid-March 2022, but Zelaya postponed the launch, citing market volatility, in a March interview, with a projected launch date around June extending to September 2022. provided with

Fears that El Salvador would default on a $800 million bond due in January 2023 prompted ratings firm Moody’s to reduce the country’s credit rating on May 4, citing “the lack of a viable financing strategy.”

El Salvador’s government has been purchasing bitcoin since September 2021, with Bukele starting on May 9 that the country has purchased another 500 BTC. El Salvador is expected to have lost more than $35.6 million from its BTC investment thus far.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International, a human rights advocacy non-profit, accused El Salvador’s government of conducting “large-scale human rights abuses” such as arbitrary arrests, maltreatment, and torture of inmates.

President Bukele proclaimed a state of emergency (SOE) on March 27 in response to the escalating murder rate, which the government blamed on gangs and organised crime. Since then, the SOE has been extended thrice.

The SOE, according to the human rights organisation, has modified legislation and legal procedures that weaken the right to defence, the assumption of innocence, effective judicial measures, and access to an impartial judge.

During the crackdown, more than 35,000 individuals have been imprisoned in less than three months, with a rise in arrests arresting 1.7 percent of the country’s population over the age of 18, resulting in more than 250 percent jail overcrowding.

Despite the abuses, many Salvadorans support Bukele’s harsh actions since the president is popular in surveys. According to the most recent survey provided by local media on June 1st, the present president has an approval rating of roughly 87 percent.

Read more:

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