Implications of pause and possible closure of USAID on HRDs in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia

Published by Brent Patterson on February 3, 2025

Photo: Elon Musk and Donald Trump, November 2024.

The Associated Press reports: “The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is facing its greatest threat since its inception over 60 years ago, as President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk spent the weekend impugning the agency that has contributed to Washington being the most critical source of foreign assistance around the world.”

Musk says: “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.” He has also commented: “With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down.”

The USAID building was closed to Agency personnel on Monday February 3 and 600 staffers were locked out of computer systems overnight.

The AP article adds: “In fiscal year 2023, the most recent data available, $68 billion US had been obligated in U.S. foreign aid to programs ranging from disaster relief to health and pro-democracy initiatives in 204 countries and regions. USAID was responsible for about 62 per cent of the total, with the State Department next at 28 per cent.”

That article also notes: “The Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on foreign assistance. Rubio has said there is a 90-day review period analyzing programs and that those offering “life-saving” assistance including medicine, medical services, food and shelter would be exempted from the aid freeze, though what qualifies is not immediately clear.”

WOLA analysis

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has commented: “The unprecedented pause and potential elimination of many U.S. foreign assistance programs, announced in President Trump’s executive order ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid’, has caused shock waves worldwide.”

Implications for the countries where PBI is present include:

Mexico

“USAID has provided important support for Mexican institutions’ efforts to address the country’s devastating disappearance crisis, as well as assistance that aims to improve human rights, protect journalists and human rights defenders, and support economic development and state-level justice institutions.”

Guatemala

“In Guatemala, the most impacted project will be Justice and Transparency, which aims to ‘reduce criminal impunity and more effectively investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate crimes that drive illegal migration’. Given the country’s lack of judicial independence and criminalization of dissident voices, freezing this program could prevent elected President Bernardo Arévalo and civil society organizations from denouncing irregularities in the troubled judiciary and restoring the rule of law.”

Honduras

“In Honduras, measures to improve government’s transparency, accountability, and citizen-responsiveness will be affected during the crucial runup to the November 2025 general elections.”

Colombia

“USAID’s cooperation supports the country’s efforts to consolidate peace in conflict areas. It focuses explicitly on vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by violence, especially Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and rural communities. USAID efforts are crucial to advancing citizen security and reconciliation in one of the most violent and conflictive countries in the region. In one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich countries in the world, USAID has sought to preserve Colombia’s natural resources.”

USAID and military assistance

WOLA also highlights: “We have opposed certain forms of U.S. assistance, particularly military assistance through the Departments of Defense and State, which backed military dictatorships; supported security-force units that engage in abuse, corruption, or support of paramilitaries and death squads; or distorted civil-military relations by, for instance, helping armed forces to take on what should be internal civilian roles. We have advocated for conditions on U.S. assistance to ensure that U.S. tax dollars do not go to security forces that violate human rights with impunity.”

It adds: “Much U.S. military and police aid, including training programs and counter-drug eradication and interdiction funded through the State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) Bureau, is now on hold.”

Notably, WOLA says: “The INL mission in Bogotá has reportedly been forced already to lay off 250 contractors. The freeze has also grounded dozens of Colombia’s U.S.-provided Black Hawk helicopters for at least three months, for lack of maintenance and contractor crews. The Black Hawks were the largest single item in the much-touted ‘Plan Colombia’ aid packages of the early 2000s.”

“Informal imperialism”

Others have more sharply criticized USAID.

Carlos Cruz Mosquera, a PhD candidate and teaching associate at Queen Mary University of London, has commented: “Alongside overt forms of domination — military interventions, territorial acquisition, direct political interference — Western powers have long developed parallel forms of intervention and control, sometimes called informal imperialism. …Though firmly aligned with violent, militaristic forms of intervention, European Union aid, USAID, and other such developmental agencies have worked in the region with relatively little scrutiny or opposition. This is largely due to the widespread assumption that their projects are inherently benevolent and a force for good.”

We continue to follow this.