Since the year 2000, the government of Ecuador has instituted a policy instating the United States dollar as the official currency of Ecuador.

El Salvador, likewise, instituted a policy instituting the United States dollar as their official currency in 2001 thereby becoming the third Latin American country to use a foreign money as their official currency.

Panama was the first in the region to use the money for their operations having done so for over a century. In 1904, the government of Panama instituted the policy, which was regarded largely as a result of the US occupation of the Panama canal. Now other Latin American countries have voluntarily followed suit more than 100 years later.

In other countries, such as Argentina, the currency is highly utilized due to the detrimental affects of their own currency’s rapid inflation. Venezuela has implemented restrictions on the dollar due to the popularity of the currency over their own unstable “bolívar fuerte.”