Anti-government demonstrators in El Salvador took to the streets on the country's bicentennial, to protest the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal currency in recent moves by President Najib Boukela to consolidate his power.
According to Arab Net, several thousand people marched to the central square in the country's capital, San Salvador, waving signs declaring no to dictatorship and being scammed by Bitcoin.
The demonstrations were largely peaceful, despite one group smashing windows and setting fire to a bitcoin ATM installed last month before the cryptocurrency was introduced as legal tender. .
El Salvador adopted bitcoin last week, and the government has proposed more than 200 changes to the constitution including removing a ban on reelecting the president.
The adoption of Bitcoin was a very huge economic decision, implemented completely illogically, sent to Congress and passed on the same day, opposition lawmaker Claudia Ortiz said in an interview. It is not clear who is behind the vandalism.
We are going through a deep financial crisis with rising costs of living and unemployment, and the government's response, rather than serious economic policy, is to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
