Bitcoin Nation? Assessing El Salvador’s Crypto Experiment — A Conversation with Vladimir Pacheco Cueva

In the third episode of our new season, Global Governance Beyond Neoliberalism, we sit down with Vladimir Pacheco Cueva, Associate Professor in the Global Studies Department at Aarhus University.

Drawing on research in political economy and social policy, with a particular focus on Latin America, Cueva takes us through one of the most striking economic experiments of recent years: El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin under President Nayib Bukele.

Together with our host, Hagen Schulz-Forberg, the two explore what this unprecedented crypto-project means for governance, development, financial sovereignty, and everyday life in a country marked by political disruptions and environmental fragility. From the promises of innovation to the risks of deepening inequality, Cueva helps us understand how El Salvador’s Bitcoin project fits into longer histories of neoliberal reform and what its trajectory might reveal about the future of post-neoliberal politics across the region.

Academic Reference: 

Vladimir Pacheco Cueva, Hagen Schulz-Forberg; Bitcoin Nation? Assessing El Salvador's Crypto Experiment — A Conversation with Vladimir Pacheco Cueva. Global Perspectives 25 March 2026; 7 (1): 158699. doi:  https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2026.158699.

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This podcast was created and produced by the Research Center for New Critical Politics and Governance (CPG).

To watch the video version of this episode, please visit the link below:
https://cas.au.dk/en/cpg/podcast/mapping-the-planetary