In Venezuela, until recently it was a crime to buy dollars in the free market, it was a crime to publish the price of the black dollar. The government was the only one authorized to sell dollars to citizens. In the first years of socialism, the government gave citizens a limited amount of dollars annually for trips abroad, for purchases over the Internet or to send remittances. The oil and the debts that the government acquired paid everything, however, the quota was limited and the people had a good buying power, but we did not have bank accounts in dollars, what we did was to buy bitcoin in Bolivares and they were sent to some platform (Uphold, Payeer, Advcash, Skril, etc.) that gave you debit cards in dollars, with which I had more to travel and bring more dollars in cash when I returned from travel, bitcoin was a currency. Some of those who adopted early became miners and sold their btc in Bolivares in localbitcoin, then came to the collapse of the currency and use it as a store of value.
RE: How Bitcoin became safe haven in South America