By Landon Manning
Gustavo Petro, a guerrilla, economist, politician and winner of Colombia’s last presidential election in a less tumultuous period, has been active in the field of increasing his country’s economic independence from the United States. Together, it is turning its collection of pro-Bitcoin statements into a real opportunity. for the nation.
Petro’s career has undergone a dramatic change, with a constant history of fighting for success. As a young man, he joined the M-19 guerrilla movement (most famous for stealing Simón Bolívar’s sword), before deciding to pursue peaceful and peaceful methods. Ph.D. in the economics. After this, Petro entered a political career and helped seal the peace treaty between the last guerrilla treaties, before winning an election to become the new president of Colombia in June 2022.
The question is, what does this have to do with Bitcoin (BTC)? Petro has often said that he is looking for a new economic path for his country in line with Bitcoin’s radically decentralized promise, and he has also been working on pro-Bitcoin ideas for years. While he didn’t make Bitcoin an external feature of his political landscape, his first remarks on the subject go back to 2017, calling him “a community currency founded on trust. those who work with it, even though it’s about a blockchain, it’s measured in trust and grows, hence its strength.This is before most politicians jump on the bandwagon. , elsewhere, is on the bandwagon and his support has been consistent ever since.
Even in 2021, responding to a proposal from El Salvador to make bitcoin from green energy, Petro tweeted His support, however, considers what kind of economic change could take place if Colombia used all the electricity used in the cocaine industry to start mining bitcoin. That’s what Petro is looking for in his country: an opportunity to change the country, to “challenge feudalism in Colombia, to conquer the hereditary ideology associated with this world of slavery.” This plan is to develop a new economy that will break with the stranglehold that Western financial institutions have in the country, and they know it: just look at the hysteric tone they keep on it.
However, this support is far from a stable strategy, and represents the opening of two avenues for a pro-Bitcoin government to try and gain economic power. Petro praised himself for Bukele’s idea in El Salvador, breaking with money to introduce bitcoin as a new legal currency. Despite a number of negative pressures and problems in the markets, El Salvador has doubled, buying bitcoin at a price that had previously risen by $ 3,000 at the time of writing this article. Undeterred by the challenges ahead, El Salvador was ready to avert disaster.
On the other hand, there is the issue of the Central African Republic (CAR). While the government has worked hard to address the use of bitcoin in a similar way to El Salvador, while hiring a firm to assess the challenges ahead of the bitcoin rollout, there has come a long way. announced in early July when the country’s leader Faustin-Archange Touadéra. The subscription of “Sango Coin,” a new cryptocurrency that has all the problems of getting the online cryptocurrency population to use it and lacks the benefits of bitcoin with its decentralized and immutable ledger. Touadéra said “Sango Coin is the currency of the new generation of the Central African Republic,” adding that this new currency will be supported by bitcoin itself. Those who are familiar with the recent ups and downs in stablecoins around the world will know what “fixed” support looks like. In other words, while bitcoin is still legal on paper, it seems that the resources of the CAR government are being turned to learning about this latest Sango Coin, and the benefits are not entirely clear.
In other words, these two options open in Colombia are seen as moving forward, if Petro wants to find a new economic system to implement his new economic policy. It’s a difficult way to escape the Washington Consensus by actually changing developing countries, and turning to cryptocurrency without actually accepting bitcoin seems like murder and with the economy. However, with Petro’s big dream and looking at bitcoin for many years, it looks like Colombia may have a future on the horizon.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.