The name of the United States Agency for International Development has resonated the last days because the US president, Donald Trump, has not only made criticism of the agency, saying that “it is directed by a handful of radical lunatics,” as He said last Sunday, but also decided to freeze foreign assistance to review if he is aligned with his presidential agenda.
Although the president has not formally decided the future of the agency, Elon Musk, head of the newly created government efficiency department, who will reduce the size and expenses of the State, said he had talked with the president several times agreeing on the closure of the agency ; However, on Tuesday they announced that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will be from now on the director of the entity.
The USAID was created in 1961 by John F Kennedy as a tool to expand the influence of the United States in the world, initially with the aim of providing help in disasters and subsequently for the combat of poverty and the promotion of reforms democratic
To meet this last objective, the USAID has financed thousands of media that are presented as independent, but they are nothing more than producers of content adapted to the interests of Washington that have been constituted as an immense soft power that It operates globally in favor of the United States. A power that disguises itself as help (AID), but that is capable of destabilizing countries and promoting the overthrow of governments.
Venezuela and its Bolivarian revolution have not escaped this tangle, to the point that the country is on the list as the third that directly received the USAID, more than 700 million dollars.
Between 2017 and 2019, 260 million dollars were delivered for supposed humanitarian assistance, 247 for development and 200 million for a fund that the Venezuelan opposition called Development Fund.
Three NGOs, whose name has not been revealed, a United Nations Organization and the Pan American Development Foundation are the main beneficiaries.
President Nicolás Maduro, during the broadcast of last Monday in his Pódcast Maduro Live sudden Humanitarian, however, there is no knowledge that the amount has been delivered for this purpose.
Those who benefited were Julio Borges, Carlos Vecchio, Leopoldo López, David Smolansky and Miguel Pizarro, companions and collaborators of Guaidó who under the false premise of helping Venezuelans out of an economic crisis that they themselves caused, appropriated such aid.
According to the filtered files and that have recently been made public, the USAID signed an agreement with the “interim government” of Guaidó to provide 116 million dollars in humanitarian aid. In the act of signing this agreement, Vecchio was present as a “ambassador” in Washington.
According to the documents shown by Maduro, it is evidenced how Guaidó demanded to deliver resources only to the NGOs he decided, in addition to prohibiting that they would be delivered to the independent organizations that are sheltered under the United Nations.
In addition, they reveal the delivery of money to rock groups, artists and music festivals, whose financing was held in order to propaganda against the Bolivarian government and stimulate migration.
A $ 43,000 million monster
Official statistics on the USAID scope are not at the time available due to the temporary closure of the website ordered by Trump. Try to enter the site shows the following message: “To meet the president’s decrees, this website is currently in maintenance while we quickly and thoroughly review all its content.”
What is known, according to a recent CRS report (Congress Research Service), is that the USAID distributed in 2023 funds worth US $ 43,400 million worldwide. This official report reflects that the United States Agency for International Development allocated $ 2 billion in Latin American assistance only for 2023.
Colombia positioned itself as the main receiver of these funds, with an allocation of $ 389 million.
In other countries in the region, significant resources also injected: Haiti ($ 316 million), Guatemala ($ 178 million), Honduras ($ 144 million), El Salvador ($ 138 million) and Mexico (with 109 million dollars).
History is repeated
Among the accusations that fall on the use of USAID resources is financing to information portals in Venezuela that distort reality. This has been denounced on different opportunities by the Venezuelan president. In August 2024 he directly accused several Venezuelan media for receiving external financing to manipulate information against the Venezuelan government.
Among these media is as is, the whistle, cocuyo effect, Armando Info, the stimulus and analytical, among others, used as spaces for the manipulation of reality.
This Tuesday, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, said that Venezuela is ready to collaborate in any investigation that allows determining the link between leaders of the extreme right in destabilization actions against the country through NGOs and media independent.
He explained that the USAID is an office belonging to the Central American Intelligence Agency that seeks to finance through alleged non -governmental organizations destabilization plans.
“We are at the order for any research agency, so that the United States receives from us the evidence we have of the participation of Juan Guaidó, Leopoldo López, Carlos Vecchio, by David Smolanski, by Julio Borges, by Lester Toledo. They stole the USAID silver, and another money used it for conspiracy and death here in Venezuela, ”he said.
Dependency relationships
Since its creation in 1961, the agency has dedicated itself to providing medical care, assistance in emergency situations and programs to fight poverty. However, despite this work, it has been subject to criticism by conservative sectors, who accuse her of wasteing resources.
The USAID has been deployed by the world with a wide range of initiatives: from the presence in conflict areas such as Ukraine, the surveillance of diseases in Cambodia, vaccination campaigns in Nigeria, HIV prevention in Uganda, among many other projects, in Those that include Latin American countries, with food supplies, refuge, access to drinking water, fight against poverty and defense of democracy, according to the terms of the agency.
“We build a network of more than 50 countries on all continents, developing what I have called the world’s immune system: an increasing capacity to prevent, detect and respond more quickly to pandemic threats,” said Atul last month Gawande, high USAID official in the Biden government, in a speech prior to Trump’s possession.
However, World Health experts affirm that through these initiatives it is exercised by “soft power” worldwide, which allows the United States to have a friendly presence in developing nations, including countries that are strategic allies.
