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JEREMYBIGWOOD.NET
LATEST
USAID DOCUMENTS ON BOLIVIA
Over the past few years the government of Bolivia has been complaining that various
entities of the US
government have been meddling in its internal affairs.
While this issue is still a point of tension between the two countries,
it came to head during September of last year when Bolivia expelled the
US
Ambassador and the US
responded in kind.
One of Bolivia’s
consistent accusations is that the US government has been fueling a
separatist movement in its eastern departments.
While the mainstream media in the United States has been dismissive of
these claims, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has
recently released a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
which appears to support many of them as we shall see below.
While USAID has done some excellent work in developing Bolivia’s roads
and other worthy projects, it clearly also promotes some lesser-known political
agendas. One of the more novel of
these, according to the documents, is to “counter attacks on the USG (including
USAID) from senior levels of the GOB (Government of Bolivia).”
This is hardly the work of a development agency.
Regarding the Bolivian government claims that the US government is promoting a autonomous
separatist movements in the departments, the documents state “USAID was the
first donor to provide support to democratically elected departmental
governments…” and “The program strengthens
Bolivia’s decentralized democracy and local
regional governments…” and “furthermore, USAID programs work closely with over
160 municipalities…” No wonder the
Bolivian government – which was democratically-elected – feels that it is being
undermined.
USAID, the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) often promote their agendas through local non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) –some of them created in the first
place through US
government funding. How much
funding? The documents state: “USAID
manages about $85 million annually.” Its “programs are implemented through
different means,” especially “via non-governmental organizations.” How many NGOs
does USAID fund? “The program provides
support to a network of about 100 Bolivian NGOs…”
NGO funding is funneled through several “pass-through” entities, thus
making detection of the recipients almost impossible.
These “pass-throughs” include: Checchi
and Company Consulting, Inc, Chemonics International Inc, Partners of the
Americas and the standard bearers of US political culture: the International
Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute.
I can only applaud the USAID FOIA office for releasing these
documents - a major step towards needed transparency.
I hope that this transparency continues
so that the democratically-elected government of
Bolivia, its citizens – as well as those of the United States - can accurately
assess the bilateral relationship for themselves and make any necessary
adjustments.
A good analysis of these documents can be found at:
http://telesurtv.net/noticias/entrev-reportajes/index.php?ckl=268
More to follow later.
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This site is a compilation of JEREMY BIGWOOD's
work, and includes the following subjects:
Freedom of
Information Act
(FOIA) material on various subjects, especially Latin
America. Read the
AJR story to discover why.
Photojournalism,
mainly of Latin American "low-intensity" conflicts resulting from
the inevitable clash between local attempts at self-rule versus U.S.
regional hegemony.
Photo series and
documents:
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Coming soon!
Documents from the
Salvadoran conflict like this FMLN manual describing how
to attach
mortar rounds to the RPG-7 as well as classified CIA
documents discussing FMLN strength! |
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Manual coca eradication in
Bolivia, August, 2004
Manual
eradication of excess coca is less environmentally
damaging than
chemical or biochemical eradication, but will only
work with viable alternative development programs
that allow farmers to flourish. |
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