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☆ Nayib Bukele war on gangs: El Salvador has arrested 2% of its adult population. Other countries are taking note
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Tara John | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Eight months since El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced a war on gangs, an estimated 2% of the country’s adult population – or roughly 100,000 people – are now behind bars. In 2015, El Salvador surpassed Honduras as the most violent country in the world, with a murder rate of more than 100 per 100,000 inhabitants. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks to around 14,000 soldiers in El Salvador. Alleged gang members at a maximum security prison in Izalco, El Salvador, on September 4, 2020. “It is not that they are interested in El Salvador (they never were), their fear is that we will succeed, because other governments will want to imitate it.

☆ El Salvador deploys 10,000 troops to gang-run capital suburb
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Troops walk in the suburb of Soyapango, after El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced the deployment of 10,000 security forces to the troubled area which for years has been considered a stronghold of the violent Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, in San Salvador, El Salvador December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jose CabezasSAN SALVADOR, Dec 3 (Reuters) - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced Saturday the deployment of 10,000 security forces to a suburb of San Salvador known to be a stronghold for gangs. Images released by the government showed troops carrying heavy weapons, helmets and bulletproof vests, traveling in war vehicles. The municipality has a population of about 300,000 and was previously considered impregnable for law enforcement. Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Edited by Noé Torres and Alexander Villegas and Franklin PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ El Salvador investigative journalists sue spyware maker in U.S. federal court
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Journalists from an investigative news outlet in El Salvador sued NSO Group in United States federal court Wednesday after the Israeli firm’s powerful Pegasus spyware was detected on their iPhones. In January, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog, reported that dozens of journalists and human rights defenders in El Salvador had their cellphones repeatedly hacked with the spyware. Among them were journalists at the El Faro news site. NSO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Apple and WhatsApp have pending lawsuits against NSO Group in the same U.S. court in the Northern District of California.

☆ Trolls, propaganda & fear stoke Bukele's media machine in El Salvador
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

In examining Bukele’s media operation, Reuters interviewed more than 70 people, including former media operatives and social media researchers. It showed Bukele with an 86% approval rating in El Salvador, making him the most popular leader in the region. “The threat in El Salvador used to be from the gangs, now it's from the state,” said Angelica Carcamo, the organization's president. “I found a lot more manipulation in El Salvador than in Mexico,” Escorcia said. A native of Guatemala, Torres has been critical of the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for creating conditions that spur migration.

“Let’s say no to Norma Torres because she has caused so much harm to El Salvador,” one of the many tweets read. The State Department considers this an attempt to influence the elections. You can say someone is interfering with the election, you can call it election interference. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and his party Nuevas Ideas, or New Ideas, and its allies won the biggest congressional majority in the country’s history. Bukele and Torres met once in 2019 when she was with a congressional delegation visiting El Salvador.

☆ No place for flowers: El Salvador's biggest lake swamped by trash
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Jose Cabezas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LAKE SUCHITLAN, El Salvador, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A horse wades through a sea of plastic bottles, tin cans and green sludge that fills El Salvador's largest freshwater lake, stark images showing how a key drinking water source goes neglected even as global environmental concerns are on the rise. Known locally as Suchitlan, meaning "place of flowers" in the indigenous Nahuatl language, the Cerron Grande reservoir's ecosystem is home to native fish, waterbirds and mammals such as cougars and ocelots. [1/5] Members of "Piedra del Idioma" (Language Stone), a cooperative of fishermen and farmers, clean the the El Cerron Grande reservoir in Potonico, El Salvador September 14, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas 1 2 3 4 5The reservoir's mounting trash comes from the Lempa River, which flows from the Guatemalan highlands via neighboring Honduras, before settling in Cerron Grande, located at the foot of El Salvador's biggest hydroelectric dam. El Salvador is one of Latin America's poorest nations.

☆ El Salvador govt seeks Congress approval to issue bitcoin-backed bonds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The government of El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, is seeking congressional approval to issue investment bonds in the cryptocurrency. El Salvador's government-controlled legislature announced late on Tuesday it had received a bill dubbed the "Digital Assets Issuance Law," aimed at regulating the offering of such bonds to local and foreign investors. The proposal comes a year after President Nayib Bukele announced he would launch so-called "volcano bonds" to raise $1 billion to finance his "Bitcoin City" project, which included building a town on the Salvadoran coast funded by bitcoin-backed bonds. Bukele later revealed the bonds were named after El Salvador's 170 volcanoes, which would provide geothermal energy to support bitcoin mining projects. Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ El Salvador is moving toward raising $1 billion in bonds backed by bitcoin by broadening its bet on crypto
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

El Salvador is making moves that could lead the country to raise $1 billion in bitcoin-backed bonds. In September 2021, El Salvador became the first nation in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal currency. Bukele in November 2021 said El Salvador had partnered with digital assets firm Blockstream to launch a so-called bitcoin bond dubbed Volcano Bonds. El Salvador made its last bitcoin purchase in July, according to a CoinTelegraph report. A bitcoin-backed bond cannot be issued before Congress passed the proposed legislation.

☆ Tumbling bitcoin overshadows El Salvador's crypto conference
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A worker talks on a stand during the launch of Adopting Bitcoin – A Lightning Summit in El Salvador, in San Salvador, El Salvador November 15, 2022. Crypto exchange "Bitfinex will redouble its efforts to build a free, unstoppable, resilient and open bitcoin and technology infrastructure for El Salvador," said Paolo Ardoino, the firm's chief technology officer. Ifinex, Bitfinex's parent, has agreed to collaborate with El Salvador's government to create a digital asset and securities regulatory framework. "El Salvador will become the financial and tech center of Central America. The noise won't distract the builders," Ardoino added after meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

☆ Binance chief CZ says El Salvador didn't hold any bitcoin on Sam Bankman-Fried's collapsing FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

El Salvador doesn't have any bitcoin holdings in FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao tweeted Thursday. He said 'we don't have any Bitcoin in FTX and we never had any business with them. He said 'we don't have any Bitcoin in FTX and we never had any business with them. El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and touted plans for a bitcoin bond that have yet to come to fruition. According to Bloomberg data, El Salvador's bitcoin holdings have lost 60% of their value, with its 2,381 bitcoin now worth $41.5 million at current prices.

☆ Crypto: What's next as FTX collapse triggers 'Lehman moment'?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And can the beaten-down crypto industry bounce back? What’s clear is that the fallout from the FTX crisis injects significant volatility into the crypto ecosystem. “Thank God!”Can the crypto industry survive? “In the short term, this is going to be really, really bad for the crypto industry,” said Jog of Sei Labs. Fok said he expects the FTX collapse will push institutional investors away from the crypto space just as they had been warming up to it.

☆ Prison deaths mount in El Salvador's gang crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +14 min

For more than two months, Jesús carried a clipping of that photo to every prison in El Salvador, and then to every hospital. When police and soldiers fanned out across El Salvador to make their arrests, Bukele tweeted the daily number of “terrorists” detained and talked tough about making their lives miserable. A soldier frisks a motorcyclist at a checkpoint outside Comasagua, El Salvador, on Oct. 6. They should be kept behind bars for as long as possible, said Gallegos, who is also a proponent of the death penalty in El Salvador. After forming in Salvadoran immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s, gang members brought their criminal networks back to El Salvador.

Data from Bloomberg Economics shows that El Salvador tops its ranking of emerging market countries that are vulnerable to a debt default. Another survey by the institute found that 76 out of 100 small and medium-size enterprises in El Salvador do not accept bitcoin payments. But in 2022, recent data shows that only 1.6% of remittances were sent to El Salvador via digital wallets. Meanwhile, its other national currency, bitcoin, is revered for the fact that it, too, is impossible to mint out of thin air. "Bitcoin doesn't solve any of El Salvador's important economic problems," he added.

☆ FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried breaks down his 3 favorite use cases for blockchain tech — and explains the role of regulatory oversight in crypto markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, is the CEO and cofounder of crypto giant FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO and cofounder of crypto giant FTX, broke down three blockchain use cases in an interview at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Wednesday. In traditional equities, per Bankman-Fried, buying a share of a company can take an exuberant amount of time. Crypto regulation is 'necessary' and 'good'The 30-year-old billionaire welcomes regulation, specifically citing clear stablecoin oversight. "Crypto is big enough and starting to touch enough things that it is important to have regulatory oversight. "

El Salvador tapped its thin foreign-currency reserves to repurchase debt at a discount, part of an effort to mitigate concerns about an imminent debt default as President Nayib Bukele intends to seek re-election. The government of the highly indebted Central American nation said it would buy back $566 million, paying bondholders 91 cents on the dollar for its bond due early next year and 54 cents for its 2025 bond. Each had an outstanding value of $800 million.

☆ Analysis: In Latin America, democracies shaken ahead of key elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Latin America's political arena has intensified with fallout from the pandemic, war in Ukraine, spiraling inflation plus fears of global recession. Those hardships have all hit voters' wallets in one of the world's most unequal regions, driving deeper political wedges ahead of key elections and in some countries threatening democracy itself. In long-dysfunctional Peru, leftist President Pedro Castillo, who took office just over a year ago, is battling a corruption probe amid plummeting approval ratings. read moreYet Bukele remains very popular, with an approval rating of 85% according to an August CID Gallup poll. "El Salvador is a dictatorship, a populist, beloved dictatorship, but it's a dictatorship," said Guatemalan-American novelist Francisco Goldman.

☆ I was in El Salvador, where bitcoin was accepted everywhere. Here's why their risky crypto experiment just might work.
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-16 | by ( Alex Kantrowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Bitcoin enthusiasts are waiting to see if if the bitcoin experiment will succeed, or tragically implode. Right after I hopped out the back of a pickup in El Zonte, El Salvador, I recognized I wasn't in an ordinary beach town. The bitcoin movement in El Salvador began in El Zonte when a California surfer named Mike Peterson received an anonymous $100,000+ bitcoin donation for the town's residents. For bitcoin's true believers, there's a ton riding on the El Salvador experiment. El Salvador's bitcoin experiment may not work, it could implode, but there's a chance it succeeds, and that makes it worth trying.

☆ Prima ţară din lume care ar putea adopta în mod oficial Bitcoin ca mijloc legal de plată
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-07 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +1 min

Președintele țării latino-americane El Salvador spune că intenționează să facă Bitcoin un mijloc legal de plată, alături de dolarul american, moneda oficială a acestei țări, relatează BBC, citat de digi24.ro. Dacă planul său va avea succes iar legislația propusă va trece de parlamentul țării, El Salvador ar deveni prima țară din lume care adoptă oficial Bitcoin. Astfel, criptomoneda ar urma să fie folosită în paralel cu moneda oficială a țării, dolarul american. Nayib Bukele, președintele din El Salvador spune că adoptarea Bitcoin va face mai ușor transferul de bani din străinătate, de la cetățenii țării care locuiesc acum în afara granițelor țării. Peste două milioane de cetățeni ai El Salvador locuiesc în afara granițelor țării, dar își mențin legăturile strânse cu țară și trimit, anual, înapoi peste 4 miliarde de dolari.

Persons: Salvador, El, Nayib Organizations: BBC Locations: americane, american, El Salvador, Salvador, străinătate

☆ El Salvador, prima ţară din lume care ar putea adopta Bitcoin ca mijloc de plată
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-07 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +1 min

Sursa foto: reuters.comEl Salvador, prima ţară din lume care ar putea adopta Bitcoin ca mijloc de platăEl Salvador se pregăteşte să introducă o legislaţie prin intermediul căreia ar deveni prima ţară din lume care adoptă Bitcoin-ul ca metodă de plată, alături de dolarul american. Într-o videoconferinţă din cadrul Bitcoin 2021, cel mai mare eveniment despre criptomonede din istorie, organizat anul acesta în Miami, preşedintele Nayib Bukele a anunţat încheierea unui parteneriat între El Salvador şi Strike, companie dedicată producţiei de portofele digitale care va construi infrastructura financiară a ţării folosind tehnologia Bitcoin, potrivit CNBC. „Săptămâna viitoare voi trimite către congres un plan prin intermediul căruia Bitcoin-ul va deveni un mijloc legal de plată”, spune Bukele. Jack Mallers, fondatorul şi CEO-ul grupului Strike, susţine că decizia va reprezenta o „lovitură auzită în toată lumea”.

Persons: Jack Mallers Locations: Salvador, american, Miami, Strike

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