Mexican Senator To Push Bitcoin Legal Tender, But Could It Pass?
Indira Kempis, Mexican Senator from the state of Nuevo León, has plans to make Mexico the second country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
Kempis recently discussed her plans with the Diario El Salvador saying that the impact that Bitcoin has had in El Salvador, would also be beneficial for the people of Mexico.
Kempis was asked how her recent visit to El Salvador affected her perspective on Bitcoin’s capacity to revolutionize a nation within the context of a Bitcoin ecosystem.
Kempis responded:
“El Salvador is undoubtedly becoming the most important hub or laboratory in the world about the future with bitcoin. It is clear to me that financial exclusion is one of the public problems that few of us have addressed with feasible alternatives, and that this type of technology is allowing us to generate an alternative, a way, a solution so that millions of people can be included in the financial system.”
Kempis was also asked about her desire to accept bitcoin as legal tender in Mexico, to which she responded:
“Yes, because I have a premise when making my initiatives and that is: laws to anticipate the future, not just to solve the past.”
She elaborated:
“We need Bitcoin in Mexico to be a legal tender, because otherwise, if you do not make that decision as El Salvador made it, it is very difficult to specify actions.”
Kempis intends to introduce the bill during the current session, but it might not be an easy road to walk through.
In October, the President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a press conference that his administration is not interested in adopting Bitcoin as a means of payment, and even less declaring it legal tender. He is instead focused on strengthening the country’s financial system by fighting tax evasion. He said:
“We think that we must maintain orthodoxy in the management of finances and not try to innovate too much in financial management.”
López Obrador’s presidency will come to a term end in 2024, which means that Kempis’ initiative will probably not happen before that. Even if that weren’t the case, it wouldn’t be easy for Kempis to push the law through, as she’s a member of the third-largest opposition party, Movimiento Ciudadano. It would take strong support beyond the senator’s own party for the law to go forward.
