{"id":3021,"date":"2017-06-01T17:09:33","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T01:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/?p=3021"},"modified":"2017-06-01T17:12:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T01:12:59","slug":"usaid-and-foreign-aid-debate-in-guatemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/uncategorized\/usaid-and-foreign-aid-debate-in-guatemala\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"USAID and foreign aid debate in Guatemala"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sara Van Horn, EntreMundos columnist<\/h4>\n

In 2013, Bolivian president Evo Morales expelled USAID (the US Agency for International Development) from his country, claiming the agency was supporting\u00a0secessionist movements. His reasoning was later supported by declassified US government documents<\/a>. The expulsion of USAID was also a protest against US Secretary of State John Kerry\u2019s comment that Latin America was \u201cthe backyard of the United States.\u201d\u00a0There is \u201cno lack of US institutions,\u201d Morales stated, \u201cwhich continue to conspire against our people and especially the national government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles<\/em> Times<\/em>, in an article published six days later, lamented this development: USAID \u201cdoesn\u2019t just offer aid to the poor, it also promotes democracy, which is seen as meddlesome or even subversive.\u201d The article cited the agency\u2019s goals as not only boosting economies and providing healthcare and education, but also organizing fair elections, teaching political campaign skills, and strengthening independent media.<\/p>\n

USAID, in response to Morales\u2019s decision, replied that \u201cthose who will be most hurt by the Bolivian government\u2019s decision are the Bolivian citizens who have benefitted from our collaborative work on education, agriculture, health, alternative development, and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A mural of Evo Morales, Villaz\u00f3n, Bolivia. Courtesy of Randal Sheppard<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clearly, the presence of USAID in Bolivia is controversial. The same may be said of the agency\u2019s substantial influence in Guatemala, as well as of most of Guatemala\u2019s international funding.<\/p>\n

Both government sponsored organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have a strong\u00a0presence in Guatemala.\u00a0In addition to agencies such as USAID, Guatemala boasts the largest number of foreign NGOs of any Central American country.<\/p>\n

As the Los Angeles<\/em> Times<\/em> suggested, the potential benefits of international funding are numerous and powerful.\u00a0On its website, USAID promises to \u201cmake the United States and the Western Hemisphere more peaceful, secure, and prosperous by strengthening the capacity of governments and private entities to combat crime, improve governance, address climate change, and create an economic environment in which the private sector can flourish.\u201d The organization UNICEF promises, on its website, \u201cto enforce [the] rights [of all children], everywhere and always, giving special attention to the most vulnerable and excluded.\u201d\u00a0CARE, an organization dedicated to ending poverty, states on its website that \u201cwe seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.<\/p>\n

One hopes that these benefits can be seen in the development of crime prevention, education, and health services throughout Guatemala. For example, in 2014, Vanderbilt University released a mixed-methods, three-year study<\/a> of the effectiveness of a USAID crime and violence prevention program in Central American.\u00a0The program was dedicated to violence prevention in Central American by working with civic groups, faith-based groups, and municipal committees to provide youth with life skills and job trainings, improve basic infrastructure, such as streetlights, improve security, and promote community policing, among other strategies.\u00a0The study stated that \u201cin several key respects the programs have been a success. Specifically, the outcomes in the treatment communities improved more (or declined less) than they would have if USAID\u2019s programs had not been administered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The criticisms of international aid, however, are also numerous.\u00a0At the top of the list is the charge that these agencies do not properly evaluate the needs of communities before taking steps to alleviate real or imagined problems. Agencies often lack the input of local communities and make decisions based on preconceptions or upon strategies that may not be culturally relevant in Guatemala.<\/p>\n[Editorial note:\u00a0USAID was a leading supporter and trainer of repressive Cold War-era police forces<\/a> from Guatemala to Brazil. As recently as 2014, USAID tried to foment social unrest in Cuba by infiltrating the underground hip-hop community<\/a>.]\n

Additionally, these agencies may often have hidden agendas.\u00a0Looking again at USAID\u2019s promises, we can see that making Guatemala\u2019s economy hospitable to US companies is a top priority.\u00a0USAID believes, according to its website, that \u201ceconomic and political stability in the Western Hemisphere are vital for the United States\u2026 Latin America and the Caribbean are also important and growing markets for American companies\u2014a quarter of US exports go to the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking critically at the history and present day reality of Guatemala, it is apparent that a Guatemala that allows for the \u201cflourishing of the private sector\u201d and for the prosperity of US companies on its soil is not a Guatemala that allows for the prosperity of most of its citizens. We need only look at the strong social movement #NoALaMineria to comprehend the outrage that most Guatemalans feel towards the companies from Canada, the United States, and Europe that wish to decimate and leave derelict natural resources in pursuit of profit.<\/p>\n

Another criticism is the economic dependency that international aid promotes. A memorandum prepared by the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights stated that the numerous NGOs present in Guatemala \u201cis not uncontroversial; there have been suggestions that the over-abundance of NGOs, including foreign NGOs, has made Guatemala dependent upon foreign help.\u201d Corrina Grace, the founder of the youth empowerment organization Seres<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>stated, in an article published in October, 2013 in The Tico Times<\/em>, that \u201cbecause of the country\u2019s 25-year history of aid and charities that have formed a \u2018gift economy,\u2019 there is this generation rising up that isn\u2019t empowered to do anything with their lives\u2026 As NGOs what we really should be doing is writing ourselves out of existence and training up Guatemalans to lead their own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n[Editorial note: International aid and NGOs are also criticized for\u00a0relieving social pressure on governments to provide basic services to their citizens.]\n

It\u2019s easy to argue that the idea of international sharing of resources and aid is a sound one.\u00a0In theory, international aid organizations can distribute funding where it\u2019s most needed.\u00a0They can share information and technology in helpful ways.<\/p>\n

Our current world reality is an unequal one, with an unequal distribution of power among world governments.\u00a0In the case of Guatemala and the United States, it is not hard to find historical cause for this inequality. The enrichment of the multinational companies that have begotten such suffering (beginning with Boston\u2019s United Fruit Company and continuing today with Canada\u2019s GoldCorp) is intimately tied to destabilization campaigns backed by the US throughout the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important that international organizations bear this legacy in mind.\u00a0And it\u2019s just as important to remember that, as well-intentioned or as much-needed as international help may be, the ultimate goal is for Guatemalans to be doing this work themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
USAID prepares humanitarian relief for the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Courtesy usaid.gov.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sara Van Horn, EntreMundos columnist In 2013, Bolivian president Evo Morales expelled USAID (the US Agency for International Development) from his country, claiming the agency was supporting\u00a0secessionist movements. His reasoning was later supported by declassified US government documents. The expulsion of USAID was also a protest against US Secretary of State John Kerry\u2019s comment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[453,424,1],"tags":[749,761,758,753,760,755,759,65,560,748,752],"class_list":["post-3021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frontpage-en","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-aid","tag-aid-controversy","tag-bigwood","tag-bolivia","tag-expulsion","tag-foia","tag-foreign-aid","tag-guatemala","tag-guatemala-en","tag-international-aid","tag-usaid"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/usaid.jpg?fit=635%2C425&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ljt7-MJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12746,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/uncategorized\/deportation-disinformation-and-defiance-the-global-impact-of-trumps-immigration-agenda\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":3021,"position":0},"title":"Deportation, disinformation, and defiance: The global impact of Trump\u2019s Immigration agenda","author":"EntreMundos","date":"17 marzo, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"FOR PATRICIA SCHWARTZ Around 60 people are sitting in a circle of folding chairs on a Thursday night in Tucson, Arizona\u2014an American city about an hour from the border with Mexico. 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However, this rate is not reflected in the number of women running for public office at the national, regional\u2026","rel":"","context":"En \u00abElections Guatemala\u00bb","block_context":{"text":"Elections Guatemala","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/tag\/elections-guatemala\/?lang=en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/10070963753_4a78c3fab8_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/10070963753_4a78c3fab8_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/10070963753_4a78c3fab8_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/10070963753_4a78c3fab8_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/10070963753_4a78c3fab8_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12734,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/politica\/deportacion-desinformacion-y-desafio-el-impacto-global-de-la-agenda-migratoria-de-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":3021,"position":2},"title":"Deportaci\u00f3n, desinformaci\u00f3n y desaf\u00edo: El impacto global de la agenda migratoria de Trump","author":"EntreMundos","date":"17 marzo, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"POR PATRICIA SCHWARTZ Unas 60 personas se sientan en un c\u00edrculo de sillas plegables un jueves por la noche en Tucson, Arizona, una ciudad estadounidense a una hora de la frontera con M\u00e9xico. 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