This week, the young president of El Salvador – a small country in Central America – attracted the attention of the world after the country became the first country to use Bitcoin as an official means of payment.
However, according to Reuters news agency, this is not the first time Mr. Nayib Bukele is controversial by the new leadership style.
Virtual currency supporters globally celebrate when the Bitcoin bill that President Bukele proposed by the National Assembly El Salvador was quickly approved with an overwhelming number of votes on Wednesday. The 39 -year -old leader immediately offered a plan to use volcanic thermos to provide energy for huge data centers needed for virtual money.
The above actions of Mr. Bukele have encountered the warning of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This institution quickly pointed out the economic and legal risks of the use of Bitcoin as a legal payment means – an unprecedented precedent at the national level. The warnings from the IMF are thought to be a new obstacle to the $ 1 billion support program negotiations that El Salvador wants to receive from the IMF.
“The most” cool “president in the world”
From firing officials through a statement on Twitter, to the National Assembly with the escort of armed soldiers, Mr. Bukele has often taken actions against the political tradition since he became President in 2019 – according to Reuters.
Mr. Bukele won large in local elections and Congress elections in February this year. He also received more than 90% support rate of El Salvador voters even though the national economy decreased by 8% last year. His political alliance is holding the majority of historical, defeating the two political parties El Salvador politics for the past 30 years.
A few weeks before announcing that Bitcoin became an official payment means, Bukele disagrees with the US President Donald Trump’s administration about El Salvador’s new National Assembly suddenly fired the Minister of Justice and the highest judges of the country. Mr. Bukele said that this dismissal was completely constitutional and received the support of the public.
Mr. Bukele – the one who called himself the “coolest” president in the world ” – recently presided over the opening ceremony of an international surfing race held in El Salvador in a baseball hat outfit and was defended by a military officer.
Few media to the eye and almost no resources in his hand, Mr. Bukele relied on social networks to develop his political career.
Among the achievements that Mr. Bukele has achieved as the president, there is a reduction in the number of murders in El Salvador – a country that has long faced the violence of criminal gangs.
Although young, Mr. Bukele is not a “young” character in politics.
In the early stages of his career, Mr. Bukele worked in a advertising company owned by his father. Customers of this company have the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), an extreme political party at that time in power in El Salvador.
Bukele joined FMLN in 2012 and became the mayor of NeuVu CusCatlan, a coffee growing area near the capital of San Salvador. Few media to the eye and almost no resources in his hand, he relied on social networks to develop his career. Thanks to the prestige of good management capacity, he gathered enough support to win the mayor of San Salvador in 2015.
In San Salvador, Mr. Bukele continues to build prestige by focusing on social-civilized issues and sponsoring all salary to grant scholarships. However, only 2 years later, FMLN exposed him, saying that he caused division, violate the Party’s rules and throw apples at a commissioner at a council meeting. Bukele denied all these allegations.
Later, Mr. Bukele founded a new party with the name of new ideas (New IDEA) and the alliance with the right -wing party Granza Por La Unidad Nacional (Gana) in the presidential campaign relying mainly on social networks.
Leaders are controversial
The youngest president in the Americas took office with the promise to end corruption in El Salvador. He himself was also investigated by the Minister of Justice about the allegations of money laundering, cheating and tax evasion during the time as the mayor. However, Mr. Bukele denied these allegations.
El Salvador people admire Mr. Bukele’s confidence and decisive manner, including his regular use of Twitter to direct the work of the ministers.
The fact that Mr. Bukele’s siblings and cousins were assigned important positions or advisory roles leading to allegations of familyism, but he also denied.
The international community did not pay much attention to Bukele until the president entered the National Assembly in a meeting earlier last year to propose to ratify the $ 109 million loan for the fight against criminals. At that time, he was escorted by soldiers with costumes and weapons ready to fight.
“If I am a dictator or a person who does not respect democracy, then I have gained control of the entire government tonight,” Bukele told the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
In Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Bukele has implemented a series of economic and economic measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis. However, he ignored the Supreme Court’s ruling against the measures that he applied, and faced the criticism of some human rights organizations.
However, the El Salvador people were bored with corruption and the ineffective working politicians lasted for decades in the country. They admire Mr. Bukele’s confidence and decisive manner, including his regular use of Twitter to direct the work of the Ministers.
“Now thatib works very well. We have never had any president who cares about the lives of people like him,” said Eduardo Samayoa, a 36 -year -old taxi driver, telling Reuters.
