[otto_ortega]

Nope. As a Salvadorean the "they've blown about 1% of their annual budget" argument irritates me...

First of all: "annual government budget of about $5.6B" this is misleading, the government is 100% reliant on NEW debt to operate, there is NO "disposable income" not even a penny...

Heck, the goverment just approved a new $650M debt package to execute a "last resort" strategy and try to pay old debt by buying bonds expiring on early 2023 at below face-value price, because lenders have pretty much lost faith on the goverment having the capacity to pay, so they are "cutting loses".

1% may look like nothing at face value, but when you are even a little bit informed about Salvadorean reality you know that $104M is A LOT of money for a country where the ICUs of the most important hospital of the public network get FLOODED every time there is a couple of hours of rain [1] and rebuilding the whole hospital would cost $170M...

[1] https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/tormenta-bonnie...

[superb-owl]

To be clear - not saying this was a good decision on the government's part. I agree it seems pretty poorly thought out.

Appreciate all the other info!