President Evo Morales said Wednesday he is expelling the U.S. Agency
for International Development from Bolivia for allegedly seeking to
undermine his leftist government, and complained about the U.S.
secretary of state calling the Western Hemisphere the “back yard” of
Washington.
Morales did not specify what USAID had done that merited
expulsion, but the ABI state news agency said it was “accused of alleged
political interference in peasant unions and other social
organizations.”
In the past, Morales has accused USAID of funding groups that have
opposed his policies, including a lowlands indigenous federation that
organized protests against a Morales-backed highway through the TIPNIS
rain forest preserve.
In 2008, Morales expelled the U.S.
ambassador and agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for
allegedly inciting the opposition.
As U.S.-Bolivian relations
soured and Washington canceled trade preferences, total U.S. foreign aid
to the poor, landlocked South American country has dropped from $100
million in 2008 to $28 million last year, with counternarcotics and
security aid set to virtually disappear in the coming fiscal year. With
Colombia and Peru, Bolivia is one of the world’s three major
cocaine-producing nations.
Kerry said in April 17 testimony to the House Foreign Affairs
Committee that “the Western Hemisphere is our back yard. It’s critical
to us.” He was discussing perceptions in the region that the United
States ignores it.
Many Latin Americans, leftists in particular,
are sensitive to any U.S. statements that could imply hegemonistic
designs, especially in light of Washington’s 20th-century history of
backing repressive governments in the Americas.
Read more: Washington Post
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