Latam Insights Encore: Bukele's Gambit or How (Not) to Conduct a Bitcoin Revolution

Welcome to Latam Insights Encore, a deep dive into Latin America’s most relevant economic and crypto news from the past week. This edition examines President Nayib Bukele’s behavior regarding the commitments El Salvador has made under the IMF deal, choosing to remain vague rather than explaining how bitcoin fits into this new national reality.

Latam Insights Encore: Bukele Shifts Into Defense Mode Over IMF Bitcoin Deal

The recent developments regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $1.4 billion credit facility deal and the Salvadoran government’s compromises to achieve this have revealed a dark side of President Nayib Bukele’s leadership.

After the IMF disclosed the fine print on the Salvadoran deal, it was uncovered that Bukele’s administration agreed to wind down the Chivo wallet, and suspend bitcoin purchases and the public sector’s mining initiatives.

Baffled by these affirmations, that would stop or at least hinder the Salvadoran bitcoin push, bitcoiners came to Bukele for answers… but they found none.

Read more: Bukele’s IMF Deal Controversy: Fine Print on Bitcoin Raises Questions

Instead of taking the transparency route, Bukele chose to go into defense mode, stating that El Salvador would continue to stack bitcoin, without proper disclosure of the actual circumstances that allowed the country to keep accumulating BTC.

When confronted with criticism, Bukele stated:

No, it’s not stopping. If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most “bitcoiners” abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future.

Bukele seems to be in a headlong rush this time, disregarding the critical thinking approach that initially drove the changes necessary to include bitcoin in the economy.

This approach has caused expats like Andreas Kohl, who came to El Salvador to experience a true bitcoin economy in motion, to abandon the country and lose hope that any of the current administration’s promises regarding bitcoin and crypto would be fulfilled.

While Bukele’s approach has damaged the optimism regarding bitcoin in El Salvador, it has not quelled grassroots activists from pushing for adoption. John Dennehy, co-founder of bitcoin education initiative Mi Primer Bitcoin, has chosen to stay and continue with his labor focusing on teaching the basics of bitcoin.

El Salvador might become a cautionary tale for countries where bitcoin adoption is pushed top-down, instead of relying on a bottom-up, education-led focus.