Leopoldo López is a Venezuelan politician that opposed the administration of Nicolás Maduro. The letter got signed by Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation.
A group of 21 human rights (DD. HH.) activists and defenders, among which the Venezuelan Leopoldo López and the bitcoin enthusiast Alex Gladstein stand out, sent a letter to the Congress of the United States (USA) to set a position in favor of bitcoin (BTC). They argue that Bitcoin is a digital asset that has allowed it to grant economic safety to regions with damaged economic systems.
The activists highlight in the letter available on the Financial Inclusion page that a currency like bitcoin provides safety and economic empowerment because it is open source and doesn’t count on barriers regarding permissions.
In addition, it offers unprecedented access to the world economy for users in nations like Nigeria, Turkey, and Argentina, where local assets are crashing down, breaking up, or getting cut off from any link to the outside world.
Leopoldo López appearing among the signatories of the letter to the US Congress is a worrying event, as he is a Venezuelan politician captured and held in jail from 2014 until his release in 2019.
López has been a harsh critic of the current administration and political movement in Venezuela, encouraging protest actions against the socialist rulers in the country. In 2014, he boosted a series of demonstrations that ended up with the death of many Venezuelan protesters.
After fleeing in April 2019, López moved to Spain, where he now lives with his wife, another human rights activist named Lilian Tintori, and their children.
From that country, he orchestrated an entire campaign against the Maduro administration, which he labeled a socialist dictatorship since he got jailed in a military body in Venezuela for more than three years.
His current stance on bitcoin runs in parallel with his close connections to the human rights defender, Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, who currently leads the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), where the bitcoin user Alex Gladstein works as CEO. This organization has close ties to the Bitcoin space.
Response to the Anti-bitcoin Letter
The 21 activists sent the letter to the United States of America Congress in response to the letter that a group of critics also sent to the US law-making body. They explained why digital assets are not a solution to the current economic problems.
According to the human rights defenders, almost all the authors of the anti-cryptocurrency letter come from nations with balanced assets, freedom of speech, and solid rights over property.
While not saying that BTC and other digital assets can solve the whole economic problem, evidence suggests that bitcoin would encourage Americans and citizens of the world and strengthen their economy for the years to come.
By: Jenson Nuñez
