Embattled U.S.-Bolivia relations took another hit yesterday
after Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) of using democracy promotion programs for
political purposes and announced he would expel the organization from the
country.
La Razon reports
that Morales made the announcement in an hour-long speech to commemorate
International Workers' Day, in which he claimed that the U.S. development
agency had interfered with the internal affairs of campesino unions
and other social organizations. Its goal, according to the president, was to
manipulate leaders of these groups and turn them against the government.
“The United States continues to conspire. For this reason,
we are using this gathering to announce that we have decided to expel USAID from
Bolivia. It is leaving. Never again will USAID manipulate and use our
community organizer brethren,” announced Morales. He also condemned a recent
remark by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in which he characterized Latin
America as the “backyard” of the United States.
In response, the aid organization characterized
Morales’ accusations as “baseless,” adding that the announcement is
proof that his government is not interested in “a relationship based on mutual
respect, dialogue, and cooperation.”
The
Associated Press claims that it submitted a 2010 Freedom of
Information Act request into USAID’s funding in the country. While the agency’s
response was not detailed, it included items like a $10.5 million grant for “democracy-building”
awarded to Chemonics International Inc. in 2006, for the stated
purpose of supporting “improved governance in a changing political
environment.”
The Morales government has complained about USAID democracy
promotion programs in the past, most recently for allegedly providing financial
support to NGOs which oppose a planned highway through
the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park (TIPNIS). These
groups held a series of marches and demonstrations in late 2011, and the
political fallout from the government’s response led to a drop in Morales’
popularity and caused a major
cabinet shuffle. When the debate over the project was revived in early
2012, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera pointed a finger
at USAID, saying it was “spending
any amount of money” to dispute the government’s sovereign right to
develop the road.
USAID’s official response to the announcement laments that
“those who will be most hurt by the Bolivian government’s decision are the
Bolivian citizens who have benefited from our collaborative work.” But the
impact of its expulsion will likely be limited. As the AP
notes, USAID has drastically reduced funding to its Bolivia program
in recent years, from $100 million in 2008 to just $28 million in 2012.
News Briefs
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- El Nacional reports that Capriles has announced that he intends to officially challenge the results of the April 14 elections before Venezuela’s Supreme Court today. While the opposition leader is not optimistic about the court, he announced in yesterday’s march that he intends to exhaust domestic remedies before taking his case to the “international community.” This suggests he will present a petition on the matter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has the ability to take cases from any member nation of the Organization of American States (OAS), despite an announcement by Hugo Chavez last year that his government would withdraw from the Commission.
- U.S. President arrives in Mexico today, where he is expected to discus trade relations and immigration with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Peña Nieto. No word yet on whether he will address human rights concerns or Peña Nieto's shift away from a security policy which focuses on going after criminal kingpins. Americas Quarterly features an exclusive interview with the President on his trip, which will include a visit to Costa Rica.
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- In another potentially good sign for peace in Colombia, officials say that the number of voluntary FARC and ELN demobilizations is up by 14 percent this year compared to the first four months of 2012.
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- The New York Times reports on a new presence in the annual Workers’ Day march held yesterday in Havana: private entrepreneurs. While individuals who have taken advantage of lowered restrictions on private business in Cuba were a minority at the march yesterday, the article features interesting perspectives of those who showed up, many of whom said they came to show solidarity with state workers.
- In an interview with AFP, Paraguayan President-elect Horacio Cartes told the news agency that one of the priorities of his administration will be re-establishing ties with his country’s “immediate neighbours” in order to regain access to Mercosur.
- Foreign Policy looks at the two top contenders for the next head of the World Trade Organization (WTO): Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo and Mexico’s Herminio Blanco. While both are widely respected in their field, Blanco is a University of Chicago-trained economist and has more support from the U.S. than Azevedo, who is the favorite of the BRIC nations and the majority of the developing world.
- The Economist has a piece on inaccuracies in Chile’s official 2012 census. Last week a top official in the country’s National Statistics Institute told the press that the census was less accurate than initially stated, which in turn cast doubt on official inflation and other economic figures as well.
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