President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele laughed at Democrats on Monday evening and called them “salty” in response to a bill introduced by Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-MD) that seeks to impose sanctions against Bukele and members of his administration.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA the Dems are just salty…” Bukele wrote on his official Twitter account.
The bill, called “El Salvador Accountability Act of 2025,” was introduced in June by Sen. Van Hollen, alongside Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA). The text calls for sanctions against Bukele, Vice President Félix Ulloa, several ministers, top-ranking officials, and any foreign person in El Salvador working on behalf of the Government of El Salvador for “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” The human rights violations were allegedly committed under the “state of exception” emergency decree that the Salvadoran government has used since 2022 to enact a massive crackdown against the country’s most violent criminal gangs, as well as other strict security policies such as the construction of the CECOT mega-prison.
The proposal would also target any individual that, based on “credible information,” has allegedly engaged in the alleged human rights violation scheme, “including by accepting United States taxpayer dollars, to deprive individuals residing in the United States of their rights under the Constitution of the United States; or has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any person” that has engaged in the mentioned activities.
Some of the sanctions include U.S. visa restrictions against Bukele and all other targeted individuals, freezing any U.S.-based assets they own, and restricting their access to loans and credits from U.S. financial institutions and foreign exchange transactions. The financial restrictions also call for the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to instruct relevant institutions to use the “voice and vote of the United States” to oppose any loan or financing to the government of El Salvador and suspend any existing loan programs if they are not of a humanitarian nature.
The bill also calls for the U.S. secretary of state to submit a report to Congress on the “actions of officials of the Government of El Salvador, including President Nayib Bukele, to use cryptocurrency as a mechanism for gross corruption, graft, and sanctions evasion.”
The proposed report would include estimates of the amount of funds used by the Salvadoran government to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, details and location of the exchanges used for the transactions, and an “assessment of whether Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies have been used in El Salvador” for corruption or as a “vector to evade financial sanctions imposed on other countries.”
Prior to his successful campaign against the country’s violent gangs – a cornerstone of his policies – Bukele adopted the use of Bitcoin as central to his political agenda. Under Bukele, El Salvador in 2021 became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency, making it the second official currency of the country alongside the U.S. dollar. The Salvadoran president often flaunts on social media the profits yielded by the country through bitcoin.
“They said, ‘Don’t take screenshots, take profits,’” Bukele wrote in May, with a photo indicating that the country made a 132.354-percent profit from its bitcoin reserves to that date.
Sen. Van Hollen introduced the bill days after he traveled to El Salvador to intercede on behalf of Salvadoran illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is accused of being an MS-13 gang member and human smuggler and who at the time had been deported to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia is presently back in the United States to face trial on human trafficking charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in mid-June. Last week, Bukele published a video he presented as evidence refuting claims that Abrego Garcia was beaten and tortured during his detention in El Salvador.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Read the full article here
