Deputy of El Salvador's Opposition Party Sues Country Over Bitcoin Law
A regional deputy belonging to an opposition party in El Salvador and a group of citizens have sued the government over the country's new bitcoin law, calling it unconstitutional.
According to a report on Tuesday by Spain's second-largest newspaper, El Mundo, Jaime Guevara of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMNL) has joined a group of citizens to oppose the law.
FMNL is one of the country's two major political parties, and Guevara is the deputy of Morazán, a province in the country's northeast.
Oscar Artero, a citizen plaintiff accompanying Guevara, said the lawsuit was brought because the law signed by President Nayib Bukele failed to consider the harmful effects on his country.
On June 8, the country's legislature passed a law by a supermajority making bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. El Salvador is the first country to make the crypto an official currency.
"The bitcoin law is to loot people's pockets, it is tax-exempt," Artero said during a press conference. "They want to force us to trade."
The case will be heard by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, the country's top judicial branch.
Bukele's party ousted five Supreme Court judges last month for their ruling on COVID-19 measures, a move that was widely condemned. They were immediately replaced by new magistrates.
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