Is The President Of El Salvador Acting Like An Authoritarian?

This is a full transcript of a recent Twitter Spaces debate between Alex Gladstein and Jaime Garcia about whether or not the President of El Salvador is enacting authoritarian policies.

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Transcript

[00:00:05] Q: I am very excited to introduce our guests today. We will start with hi may Garcia, who is a Salvadoran immigrant who lives in Canada now has written extensive articles on the ongoing presidency as well as their Bitcoin rollout.

[00:00:32] Jamie Garcia: I work for an insurance company up here in Canada, just a regular pleb. You know, just a regular Joe earning money and paying for my bills and saving some sats if there’s any leftover at the end of the month.

[00:00:48] Q: On the other side of the conversation, we are joined by the chief strategy officer of the HRF, who’s written countless essays about how Bitcoin is helping people today. Right now, even though it may not necessarily be in the forefront of how you can use it, as well as the author of just required reading for everyone in the Bitcoin space, check your financial privilege.

[00:01:14] Jamie Garcia: Thanks for the invite.

[00:01:16] Q: I wanted to start by giving you each an opportunity to just sort of have an opening remark about this conversation to establish what side of the coin each of you guys will be discussing.

Then we’re gonna dive into Nayib’s actions, just Nayib’s actions, solely. Then expand that into how his actions are impacting El Salvador and El Salvadorans, and then further expand that into how that’s gonna impact Bitcoin.

[00:02:16] Jamie Garcia: Yeah, thanks. And you know, like for me, you know, I’m hoping, rather than this being a debate, it’s more of a conversation, a dialogue. And so, you know, being Salvadorian and having lived most of my life outside of the country as an exile from the eighties from the civil war, You know, I can definitely acknowledge that I have a lot of not only societal, but financial privilege.

And so, you know, this situation on the ground is quite differently, but I also have been there. I know what it’s like to be there. And I, and I provide perspective of Salvadorian, Salvadorian, who is part of the diaspora, who like many is part of the diaspora, want to see the country progress. And we, many of us feel like Bitcoin’s a way to do it.

Right. So, and you know, looking intently into the developments of how the country’s tackling security individual freedoms, financial freedom. And for me you know, I’m not like some in Bitcoin, Twitter claim, not a status. I’m not a promoter of B Kelly or his government, but I’m definitely a supporter of when things get done.

Right. Do I have criticisms? Of course, but so far I think that I’ll also, there’s a good path and you know, I will continue to support if, if it’s in this path and if it changes, then I will, my mind, I will change my outlook. And I’ll be sure to write about it as well.

[00:03:57] Alex Gladstein: Sorry guys. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I mean, and a lot of my nuance to use on this came from the research and reporting I did last year, which is in a Bitcoin magazine essay called the village and the strong man, which I would encourage. Everyone to check out. At the end of the day, this was all about a handful of really impressive people in the community of Elante who helped get this all off the ground.