Dominica joins ALBA in calling for the expulsion of USAID from their territories
By the TDN Wire Staff
June 23, 2012 8:30 A.M.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit addressing the February 2012 ALBA summit in Caracas, Venezuela (Photo credit Prensa MPPRE).
Roseau, Dominica (TDN) -- Dominica has joined the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela in requesting that the Heads of Government of ALBA effect the immediate expulsion of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, from the countries of the ALBA bloc.
The resolution was passed following an ALBA foreign ministers meeting in Rio de Janerio, Brazil on June 21, 2012. The statement was published in Spanish on the Cuban Grandma newspaper (See Statement)(English Translation).
“ To request the Heads of State and Government of the States Parties to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas for the immediate expulsion to their countries of USAID, its delegates or representatives, on the grounds that their presence and activities are a factor of disturbance which threatens the sovereignty and political stability of our nations.”
According to the statement, the USAID openly interferes in the internal politics of the ALBA countries, under the pretext of "planning and managing the economic and humanitarian assistance outside the United States and around the world " through NGO funding, actions and projects aimed at undermining legitimate governments who are not sympathetic to their interests.
The foreign ministers said they based their conclusions on evidence from declassified U.S. State Department documents which shows that the USAID funds organizations and political parties opposed to the governments of the ALBA countries, “ in a clear and blatant interference in the internal politics of each nation.”
The statement continues “It was considered that in the majority of ALBA countries USAID, through its various organizations and facades, acting illegally and with impunity, without a legal framework for it, and illegally funding media, political leaders, organizations NGOs, among others.”
“Knowing that through these financing programs take shelter a group of NGOs promoting all kinds of fundamentalism to conspire to limit the powers of our states and in many cases plunder our natural resources in large areas that seek to dominate their free will.”, the statement added.
Interestingly, the other two English speaking countries in the ALBA bloc Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines did not sign on to the declaration.
