Requiem for USAID

President Donald Trump’s administration has temporarily closed the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal institution responsible for delivering U.S. economic and humanitarian assistance around the world, freezing its programs indefinitely.

Acting director of USAID, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said that U.S. foreign aid should ensure that it makes the United States safer, stronger and more prosperous. And that was what people thought USAID was doing, having always directed its resources at establishing Washington’s political, economic and cultural dominance.

El País columnist Boris Muñoz warns that the closure of USAID is part of an onslaught by Trump and his team to privatize the government. They also seek to close and outsource the operations of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

USAID’s programs, shuttered at the recommendation of billionaire Elon Musk, address environmental advocacy, human rights, education and anti-corruption, but essentially seek to strengthen or weaken governments, depending on whether they are sympathetic to or disaffected with Washington. Marcha Verde* would not have been what it was without the support of USAID.

Alternative media, as well as U.S. and international journalists, have cried foul over the cessation of subsidies they received from USAID for programs intended to promote freedom of expression; however, the end goal was the repression of liberal and leftist ideologies.

The term “civil society” appears repeatedly in the accounting books of the targeted federal agency, which provided program support for a variety of nongovernmental organizations. It received millions of dollars to support democracy, the environment and gender diversity — or at least that is what appears on the checks.

The most troubling finding in the examination of USAID has been how it financed the press and journalists from many countries, some of them governed by strong regimes. The Republican administration is now using this issue to embarrass media and communication professionals who received money from the agency.

Let us hope that USAID survives Hurricane Trump after all its programs have been audited, and that it becomes an instrument that is not used to indoctrinate the press or hire journalists to destabilize governments, but rather to contribute to efforts to eradicate poverty and marginalization.

*Editor’s Note: The Marcha Verde movement emerged in 2017 to protest bribery on the part of the Brazilian transnational Odebrecht.