El Salvador’s president accuses the world media of lying about the country’s bankruptcy

Nayib Bukele said that the outlets that predicted the default of the state because of investments in bitcoin, did not cover the repayment of the debt of $800 million

24.01.2023 - 11:30

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2 min

What’s new? El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele criticized international news outlets for not covering the country’s repayment of $800 million in bond debt. According to him, the media predicted that the state would default on its debts because of the “bitcoin bet” by January 2023, but after the prediction did not come true, almost no publications covered it. Bukele noted that he found only one article in a Colombian outlet about El Salvador paying off its debt.

In the past year, almost every legacy international news outlet said that because of our “#Bitcoin bet”, El Salvador was going to default on its debt by January 2023 (since we had an 800 million dollar bond maturing today).Literally, hundreds of articles https://t.co/rEiK7K13U4 — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 24, 2023

What else did the president write? According to Bukele, the media was “creating the narrative that El Salvador was broke and going to default,” and hundreds of articles with similar headlines came out in 2022. The president refuted these claims, noting that he was not believed by “international news outlet and their “economic geniuses.”

“They [the media] lie and lie and lie, and when their lies are exposed, they go on silence mode,” Bukele wrote.

El Salvador and bitcoin. El Salvador recognized BTC as a legal tender in September 2021, after which authorities repeatedly invested in the asset. In January, Bloomberg reported that the country’s losses from bitcoin investments totaled $12 million. A year later, 77% of citizens opposed the policy, while the IMF refused to provide a loan to El Salvador because of the legalization of BTC.

Since November 18, 2022, El Salvador started buying 1 bitcoin every day. By January 24, the country has 2449 coins ($56 million at the current exchange rate on the Binance exchange).

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