AP EXCLUSIVE: USAID's days counted in Ecuador
Source: Associated Press
AP EXCLUSIVE: USAID's days counted in Ecuador
By GONZALO SOLANO, Associated Press | May 9, 2014 | Updated: May 9, 2014 6:35pm
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador's government has told the U.S. Agency for International Development that it will not renew its agreements with the South American country, according a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The Nov. 26 letter sent to the U.S. Embassy in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito says, the "USAID must not execute any new activity," nor widen any existing projects in Ecuador.
Gabriela Rosero of Ecuador's international cooperation agency, who signed the letter addressed to USAID program officer Christopher M. Cushing, said in a subsequent interview with the AP that the U.S. government aid organization must leave by Sept. 30. "The decision has been made," she said.
President Rafael Correa suggested in December that the USAID's programs were no longer welcome in Ecuador, saying on one of his regular Saturday programs on television and radio that "we don't need charity."
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/AP-EXCLUSIVE-USAID-s-days-counted-in-Ecuador-5466609.php
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Bolivian President Evo Morales asks USAID to Leave the Country
Posted by Irien / In Impact, Leaks, News around the web, The Embassy Cables / May 2, 2013
Published on International Business Times on May 2, 2013 by Jacey Fortin under the title: Bolivian President Morales Shuns USAID: Why He May Not Need The Money
“Bolivian President Evo Morales sparked controversy on Wednesday when he called for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, to leave his country.
The statement came during a May Day rally in La Paz, the Bolivian seat of government. Morales, who leads the Movimiento al Socialismo, or MAS, has long accused the U.S. government of conspiring against his leftist administration. (…)
“The U.S. is still conspiring — that is why we have decided to expel USAID of Bolivia.” (…)
There’s been a number of declassified documents that came out, which point to a long history of efforts to undermine and limit the influence of the MAS political party,” said Jake Johnston, a research associate with the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “This dates back to well before Morales was elected.”
In 2008, for instance, ABC News published statements from an American Fulbright scholar in Bolivia who said that U.S. embassy officials had asked him to provide information on any Venezuelan or Cuban nationals he might come across in Bolivia. Peace Corps volunteers had reportedly received similar requests a year earlier. American officials deny those claims.
Wikileaks cables from 2009 show U.S. antipathy toward the constitution that was implemented under Morales in 2009, and toward the MAS party, which would go on to sweep general elections later that year.
Another cable from 2006, just after Morales was first elected, reveals then-Ambassador David Greenlee acknowledging that “many USAID-administered economic programs run counter to the direction the [government] wishes to move the country.”
USAID’s own data are too vague to shed much light on these implications. Official records name the sectors and agencies that implement American disbursements in Bolivia and other recipient countries, but they do not break the information down further to reveal the precise recipients of development monies. (…)
Read the full article: http://www.ibtimes.com/bolivian-president-morales-shuns-usaid-why-he-may-not-need-money-1231287
http://wikileaks-press.org/bolivian-president-evo-morales-asks-usaid-to-leave-the-country/
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("USAID get out of Bolivia"
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