Critizing “legacy” media outlets, Bukele said these media outlets go “on silent modes when their lies have been exposed.”
El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele criticized “legacy international news outlets” for failing to cover his country’s repayment of its $800 million bond debt in a Jan. 23 Twitter thread.
Bukele said that the outlets had extensively predicted that the South American country would default on its debts because of its “Bitcoin bet.”
He noted that some of these firms wrote that his country might have to strike a deal with the International Monetary Fund to make its bond payments because of its Bitcoin losses. Bukele added:
“[They were] creating the narrative that El Salvador was broke and going to default. I called them out at the time, but of course, who was going to believe us and not every international news outlet and their “economic geniuses”?”
But following the country making the full $800 million payment with interests as and when due, Bukele said that “almost nobody is covering the story.”
“[Legacy media outlets] lie and lie and lie, and when their lies are exposed, they go on silence mode.”
El Salvador’s bond debt repayment is coming on the heels of an approval to sell BTC-backed bonds worth $1 billion. The country plans to use the funds to purchase more BTC and build a “Bitcoin City.”
Previously, El Salvador drew widespread condemnation from international financial bodies over its decision to adopt the cryptocurrency as a legal tender in September 2021. Several experts predicted the country would struggle to repay debts because of BTC’s volatility.
