So Mr. Bitcoin President of El Salvador has deployed a massive wave of incarcerating violent gang members to combat endemic violence in the country, but also at the cost of civil liberties and also not addressing the root causes of the gang violence in the first place.
Of course, El Salvador has been among the most violent countries in the world in terms of murder rates and violent crimes so something had to be done, but I'm not convinced that this crackdown will do anything but kick the can down the road.
Thoughts? Also, apologies for the Guardian link it was the first summary to come up when I searched it :ohnoes:
What economic measures has Bukele undertaken outside of the bitcoin stuff? I know he’s more confrontational re: US and IMF, but does that language translate into policy?
He did some stuff during Covid that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was more than we did in Guatemala by far. There were some small improvements on social security if I'm remembering correctly. Unfortunately, his spat with the US is more about his ego than anything else. He's a populist that initially started out with a left-wing party before they kicked him out for being a neolib. The economic measures were small and were almost completely abandoned after he went on his Bitcoin crusade.
:seen-this-one:
But for real, that checks out. Thanks for giving background