Union leader and Bolivian President Evo Morales sings his national anthem during the annual May Day march in La Paz on Wednesday. He announced during a speech that he was expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development from the country. Juan Karita/AP
Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development from his country, accusing it of undermining his government.
Bolivia’s official ABI news agency reported that Morales accused USAID, which has been in Bolivia since 1964, of political interference with peasant unions and other social organizations and conspiring against his government.
“In a 2010 Freedom of Information Act request, The Associated Press asked USAID for descriptions of the Bolivian recipients of grant money. The response did not go into detail, but did include such items as $10.5 million for ‘democracy-building’ awarded to Chemonics Int. Inc. in 2006 ‘to support improved governance in a changing political environment.’
This isn’t the first time the Bolivian president has expelled a U.S. agency working in the country. In 2008, he ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration out.