The government of El Salvador announced this week that it will serve as one of several venues for the 2024 Gamergy international video game e-sports event in October.
The announcement was made by the president of the INDES National Sports Institute Yamil Bukele, brother of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who said the event is part of the nation’s 2024 sports agenda alongside other planned sports tournaments and activities.
“Each of the events we have developed and those to be developed are part of INDES’ mission and vision, embodied in the National Sports and Recreational Development Plan 2019-2039,” Yamil Bukele said. “INDES does not do sports, we dictate the sports policies of El Salvador, those who do sports are the federations who we are happy to accompany.”
Yamil Bukele also presented a new gaming and esports platform that will start to feature video games from “the world’s largest developers,” highlighting that, the video games Fortnite and Minecraft will host “exclusive” Salvador-related content that will allow users to “experience everything that the country has to show the world.”
The video shown during INDES’ presentation claims that participants will be able to “meet the President” without giving more specific details other than showing customized video game characters from Fortnite and Minecraft that loosely resemble the Salvadoran president.
Junto GGTECH Entertainment, dimos a conocer la nueva plataforma de Esports y gaming en El Salvador, que tendrá, desde el próximo abril, diferentes juegos de los desarrolladores más grandes del mundo, como Just Dance, NBA Infinite, FC 24 de fútbol, Fornite y Minecraft. Estos dos… pic.twitter.com/BcCSQIJf0f
— Yamil Bukele (@ybukele) March 5, 2024
The Gamergy gaming event will be held in El Salvador on October 26 at the Adolfo Pineda stadium located in the capital city of San Salvador. In addition to El Salvador, Gamergy has three planned venues in Mexico hosting events in July and August, as well as one planned venue in Spain scheduled for December.
Prior to President Nayib Bukele’s fierce crackdown on gang violence and the dramatic reduction in homicides it has led to, the Central American nation was known as one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Bukele’s crackdown on gangs such as MS-13 and 18th Street has led to the reported “disappearance” of said criminal organizations from Salvadoran territory.
The unprecedented reduction in crime and gang violence has allowed El Salvador to be able to host international events such as the Miss Universe beauty pageant in November and the upcoming gaming event in October, attracting newfound sources of tourism for the country.
President Nayib Bukele announced on social media this week that, as of March, El Salvador has seen a 35-percent increase in tourism when compared to the same period last year, noting that 2023 was the year with the “greatest tourism” in the Central American country’s history.
According to El Salvador’s Tourism Ministry, the country received 3.4 million visitors in 2023, which represented more than $3.79 billion in foreign currency earnings.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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