According to a TIME Magazine correspondent, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele used Bitcoin to “change the narrative” on the country’s international perception.
The TIME Magazine reporter responsible for one of the first foreign correspondent interviews of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in three years has suggested that his push for Bitcoin as legal tender in the country was more about image than substance.
In an interview with Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World released on Sept. 11, Vera Bergengruen reported that Bukele’s advisers referred to Bitcoin (BTC) adoption in El Salvador as a “great rebranding” and “complete PR [public relations] move.” Bukele briefly led his family’s PR firm before he moved into politics, becoming the Mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, Mayor of San Salvador, and president of El Salvador.
“I think the most important thing [...] is his past as a publicist,” said Bergengruen, referring to Bukele. “It’s important to understand from Bitcoin to the war on the gangs, everything he does he’s kind of image first, results later oriented.”