El Salvador Urges US To Stay Out Of Its Internal Affairs
San Salvador, Feb 17: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele urged the United States to “stay out” of the country’s internal affairs after US senators sponsored a legislative act requiring report on the adoption of Bitcoin by the Central American country.
On Wednesday, US senators Jim Risch, Bob Menendez, and Bill Cassidy introduced the Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador (ACES) Act, legislation requiring a State Department report on El Salvador’s adoption of cryptocurrency as legal tender and a plan to mitigate potential risks to the US financial system.
According to Risch, the adoption may weaken the US sanctions policy while Cassidy noted that it could open the door for money laundering cartels.
“You have zero jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation. We are not your [US] colony, your back yard, or your front yard. Stay out of our internal affairs. Don’t try to control something you can’t control,” Bukele wrote on Twitter.
In September, El Salvador became the first country to legalize bitcoin as legal tender. Bukele announced in November plans to build a Bitcoin city at the base of a volcano in the country, with the cryptocurrency used to fund the project.
In late January, the International Monetary Fund described El Salvador’s decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender as one that carries large risks for financial and market integrity and could lead to “contingent liabilities.”
