Source https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2025/07/15/El-Salvador-2025-Article-IV-Consultation-First-Review-Under-the-Extended-Fund-Facility-and-568621?cid=em-COM-123-50448

A new progress report about the IMF loan to El Salvador was just released Footnote #9....

Source: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2025/07/15/El-Salvador-2025-Article-IV-Consultation-First-Review-Under-the-Extended-Fund-Facility-and-568621?cid=em-COM-123-50448

A new 149 page document detailing the progress of the IMF loan to El Salvador was just published Just starting to read now while watching the day begin over the San Salvador volcano ...

Well said

Smart kid

Bitcoin is the means, not the end

Sunrise in San Salvador

We are nearly 4 years into El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment which seems a great time to take a big step back and evaluate how things are going There’s been lots of talk about expectations vs reality for those that move down here and that’s a valuable conversation to have and I hope it continues. I firmly believe that El Salvador will benefit greatly if we can close that gap I want to highlight a topic that I think is even more valuable to discuss though: censorship Bitcoin attracts each of us for different reasons; at the very top of my list is censorship-resistance so that’s the lens from which I view things There is a worrying trend here of a shrinking independent civil society. In recent weeks prominent critics have been arrested, dozens of journalists are now in exile and questioning the official narrative is more likely to result in name calling rather than a serious response of the issue raised So that’s the problem—what is the solution? IMO it’s two-fold, an open discussion & education that encourages critical thought I’d love to see the shrinking civil society in El Salvador openly discussed El Salvador needs builders and independent thinkers—as many as possible!

No strings attached Bitcoin grants, such as , are extremely important to the ecosystem Having funding sources that not just allow but encourage independence, is paramount to the bitcoin revolution

True I had been pretty happy to keep moving. I have kids now so that dynamic has changed

NO WAR

Depends on your perspective. From the govt I'd say: burn the popularity and euphoria on pushing through long term solutions that would be impossible in normal times then walk away. From a social movement perspective, i think you build up reserves anticipating hardier times to come. I'm staying

Yes, of course there are different categories of censorship, I was just saying my general opposition to censorship is one of the reasons I value Bitcoin.

Agreed And yes, it still feels like there's more of a positive trend than a negative one but it's more mixed now with elements of both

Ruth Lopez is the most prominent re rnt arrest (and she is very prominent here and abroad. More here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cvgnqmnj2j5o.amp There are around 40 known journalists in exile now, more here: https://www.freepressunlimited.org/en/current/grave-concern-about-increasing-deterioration-press-freedom-el-salvador

When I moved to El Salvador in 2021 there was a hopefulness among the general population which was intoxicating and contagious. In the four years since, much has changed What I felt here in 21' rhymes with what I've felt at various times in various places over the past two decades and I've been reflecting on that a lot lately; what conditions lead to it and why it never lasts First, some personal history. In the early 2000s I was in university in the US and heavily involved with activism. My targets then were the IMF & the military industrial complex (they still are, that’s about the most consistent thing in my life actually). As an organizer who never asked the state for permission, I found myself arrested often and one of those nights in jail I made the decision to leave and to stop spending most of my efforts trying to slow the bad and instead spend them trying to speed the good I moved to Ecuador and in 2005 I participated in my first revolution. I was at the barricades when the president fled the country, and the military began to take off their uniforms and join us. It was euphoric. I had never in my life experienced such a feeling of 'mass hope.' Everyone believed that a corner had been turned and was supremely confident that tomorrow would be better than today In 2011 I felt something similar while living in the encampment those first weeks at Occupy Wall Street in New York I felt it again in Myanmar in 2016 when the military dictatorship ended, and Aung San Suu Kyi assumed office It's a feeling I've been chasing my entire adult life and I found it again in El Salvador in 2021--this communal certainty that tomorrow would be better than today. It’s amazing to be surrounded by that and extremely motivating There are always two things in common: it’s preceded by times with little hope, and it never lasts In Ecuador, a charismatic academic who spoke on behalf of the social movements became president, then became authoritarian, built mega-jails, then filled them with his people. Occupy Wall Street descended into infighting, banks got more powerful, and the rich got richer. Myanmar is now in a civil war between a new military dictatorship and various ethnic minorities For me, the honeymoon is over in El Salvador. That hope I felt in 2021 and 2022 is still there but it is far more tempered among Salvadorans now than it had been. Extreme human emotion can’t be sustained, not for the individual and not for the group—after all the basis is contrast. You need some rain to appreciate the sun Just some morning reflections as I watch the clouds over San Salvador on a rainy Tuesday