Yankee Imperialism
Over the last few months, the Donald Trump administration’s changes to foreign policy in relation to the U.S. Agency for International Development have had very little effect on Uruguay. USAID, for short, is an independent federal agency that was launched by President John F. Kennedy during the Cold War in 1961, whose main job involves planning and administering economic and humanitarian aid distributed by the United States to the rest of the world.
Given that the U.S. is the world’s largest power, USAID’s budget (until 2024) represented about 40% of all international aid, reaching more than 120 countries worldwide. To give an idea of the scale of its finances, this is an organization that spends more than 50% of Uruguay’s GDP every year. This is an extraordinary power for Washington to wield, allowing it to exert influence anywhere and everywhere to advance its interests.
The North American taxpayer has always financed every cent of this colossal budget. Moreover, until Trump took office in January 2025, it had little idea what it was actually spending its money on. Yet as the finer details of USAID have been revealed over the past few months, very few in the New World have spoken out in opposition to this so-called “Yankee imperialism” and its global influence.
The secret is that, until last year, many USAID programs were aligned with left-wing, globalist ideology. Given that this is a cornerstone of the beliefs of the Latin American left, a group which has denounced Uncle Sam’s nefarious influence for decades, there is now a profound, prolonged silence. It is also worth paying attention to the nature of some of these programs, financed and implemented by the United States through USAID before Trump took power in January.
USAID pumped tens of millions of dollars into Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria, the beneficiaries of which being members of radical organizations affiliated with terrorism. It supported the development of electric vehicles in Vietnam and a transgender clinic in India. It donated $1.5 million to an LGBTQ+ group to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.” It spent a similar amount on promoting social art activities for disabled people in Belarus, as well as on defending LGBTQ+ rights in Jamaica. $2 million was spent on sex changes in Guatemala, while nearly $4 million went to LGBTQ+ causes in North Macedonia. It invested nearly $5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan. An additional $10 million paid for hundreds of thousands of meals for a terrorist group, the Nusra Front, which has ties to al-Qaida. Nearly $8 million went to a project in Sri Lanka designed to teach journalists how to avoid binary-gendered language; a similar figure went to Nepal for equity and inclusion education. These are just some of the countless expenditures of this type.
As a result of the Trump administration’s investigation, which has brought the wholly biased, ideological nature of this spending to the public eye, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in March that more than 80% of the agency’s programs would be discontinued.
The announcement resulted in the cancellation of more than 5,000 contracts, comprising billions of dollars that did not benefit (and in some cases even harmed) U.S. fundamental national interests.
There are two simple conclusions. First, surely it is important to know more about what influence USAID might have had in South America in promoting an agenda that, for example, believed that the problems faced by the LGBTQ+ community in North Macedonia required American aid. What if similar programs were secretly funded in Latin America, particularly in Uruguay?
Second, it is obvious that a global power like the United States should engage in international aid through cultural programs. However, it must be remembered that USAID clearly did not have in mind the genuine interests and concerns of the majority of the general public in its target countries. In the past, the left would have labelled this type of American behavior “Yankee imperialism.”
Given that the U.S. is the world’s largest power, USAID’s budget (until 2024) represented about 40% of all international aid, reaching more than 120 countries worldwide. To give an idea of the scale of its finances, this is an organization that spends more than 50% of Uruguay’s GDP every year. This is an extraordinary power for Washington to wield, allowing it to exert influence anywhere and everywhere to advance its interests.
The North American taxpayer has always financed every cent of this colossal budget. Moreover, until Trump took office in January 2025, it had little idea what it was actually spending its money on. Yet as the finer details of USAID have been revealed over the past few months, very few in the New World have spoken out in opposition to this so-called “Yankee imperialism” and its global influence.
The secret is that, until last year, many USAID programs were aligned with left-wing, globalist ideology. Given that this is a cornerstone of the beliefs of the Latin American left, a group which has denounced Uncle Sam’s nefarious influence for decades, there is now a profound, prolonged silence. It is also worth paying attention to the nature of some of these programs, financed and implemented by the United States through USAID before Trump took power in January.
USAID pumped tens of millions of dollars into Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria, the beneficiaries of which being members of radical organizations affiliated with terrorism. It supported the development of electric vehicles in Vietnam and a transgender clinic in India. It donated $1.5 million to an LGBTQ+ group to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.” It spent a similar amount on promoting social art activities for disabled people in Belarus, as well as on defending LGBTQ+ rights in Jamaica. $2 million was spent on sex changes in Guatemala, while nearly $4 million went to LGBTQ+ causes in North Macedonia. It invested nearly $5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan. An additional $10 million paid for hundreds of thousands of meals for a terrorist group, the Nusra Front, which has ties to al-Qaida. Nearly $8 million went to a project in Sri Lanka designed to teach journalists how to avoid binary-gendered language; a similar figure went to Nepal for equity and inclusion education. These are just some of the countless expenditures of this type.
As a result of the Trump administration’s investigation, which has brought the wholly biased, ideological nature of this spending to the public eye, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in March that more than 80% of the agency’s programs would be discontinued.
The announcement resulted in the cancellation of more than 5,000 contracts, comprising billions of dollars that did not benefit (and in some cases even harmed) U.S. fundamental national interests.
There are two simple conclusions. First, surely it is important to know more about what influence USAID might have had in South America in promoting an agenda that, for example, believed that the problems faced by the LGBTQ+ community in North Macedonia required American aid. What if similar programs were secretly funded in Latin America, particularly in Uruguay?
Second, it is obvious that a global power like the United States should engage in international aid through cultural programs. However, it must be remembered that USAID clearly did not have in mind the genuine interests and concerns of the majority of the general public in its target countries. In the past, the left would have labelled this type of American behavior “Yankee imperialism.”
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