Treat HIV in dozens of nations. Stop the forced work of Chinese workers. Formation of the Mexican and Colombian police in anti-narcotic application.
It is only a small sample of aid programs around the world by operating with US government grants that could be permanently closed executive decree President Trump signed last week to interrupt foreign aid.
The feeling of crisis among aid groups in the world is increasing, as US officials say to the groups that they must obey an almost universal stop prescription emitted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the directive of Mr. Trump.
Officials say that groups must freeze almost all the programs that have received one of the $ 70 billion of the annual assistance budget approved by the congress through bipartite negotiations. They include programs that provide drugs, shelter and clean water in disastrous conditions and often make the difference between life and death.
Uncertain to know if they can pay salaries or obtain future financing, groups around the world have said they were starting to dismiss employees or do them known. In the United States only, tens of thousands of employees, many of whom live in the Washington region and count on contractual work with American agencies, could lose their jobs. Some have already been dismissed.
The leaders of the aid groups say that they have never seen such an expansive and harmful directive, even during periods of re -evaluation of aid by previous administrations. Many of them rush to contact the legislators and other US officials to obtain urgent messages to Mr. Rubio. They said some programs will be difficult to restart after a temporary closure, and many could disappear.
The State Department said that this decision was aimed at ensuring that all foreign aid programs “are effective and in accordance with the United States’s foreign policy under the first program in America.”
The crisis deepened on Monday evening, when Jason Gray, the actor of the American agency for international development, put around 60 senior officials on paid leave. He wrote in an email that these officials had taken measures “designed to bypass the president’s decrees”. Tuesday, office employees deleted photographs of managers from the walls. Entrepreneurs have also been dismissed or put on leave.
Rubio declared in a cable to American missions abroad that the judgment would last at least for a 90 -day assessment period. But US officials have already told certain aid groups that certain programs, including those that promote diversity, reproductive rights of women and climate resilience, will be permanently cut.
American agencies will have to break the contracts during the stop, and they will probably have to pay fees. Among the USAID employees were paid, three lawyers, including the main ethical lawyer, according to a person informed of the situation.
The executive decree interrupting foreign aid was the president’s first major foreign policy action, and many aid groups only include his wide range. Foreign assistance money generally supports humanitarian programs, development and security, and it represents less than 1% of the government budget.
Two Democrats of the Chamber, Gregory Meeks of New York and Frankel Laws in Florida, sent a letter to Mr. Rubio a letter on Saturday, saying that lives were “endangered” due to the end of the aid. “Congress affected and erased these funds for use, and it is our constitutional duty to ensure that these funds are spent as indicated,” they wrote.
The order of judgment applies to most military and security aid programs, including in Ukraine, Taiwan and Jordan. A large part of this aid is spent by the State Department. Military aid in Israel and Egypt is exempt, as is emergency food aid.
Mr. Trump’s decision to suspend foreign aid could damage American strategic interests in the long term, according to action criticism. Political decision -makers of both parties have long considered foreign aid as a powerful form of American power, a way to increase The United States influenced abroad using a small budget compared to military spending. Many development programs support the efforts of democracy, education and civil rights.
In recent years, China has attempted to gain more global influence in development projects, and it could gain ground as the United States is withdrawing.
“This 90 -day stop work is a gift for our enemies and our competitors – with effects that go beyond immediate damage to people,” said Dr. Atul Gawande, Deputy Administrator of USAID in Biden Administration .
“He takes out our alliances with dozens of countries built more than half a century, throws our expertise and our advanced ability and threatens our security,” he said.
Dr. Gawande noted that the USAID has the most important imprint abroad after the army, employing hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, who will now be dismissed or put on leave.
Some former officials say that an objective of the action could be to dismantle USAID and move their work to the State Department – while keeping the heartbreaking quantity. The person named Trump in the State Department supervising foreign aid is Pete MaroccoA division figure In the first Trump administration which worked at the Pentagon, the State Department and the USAID at the Aid Agency, the employees filed a 13 pages dissentaccusing him of mismanagement. The senior officials of the State Department can exercise authority over USAID, although the agency generally operates independently.
Some Critical Works of USAID is listed on its website. A document Said that during the civil war in Sudan, a United Nations agency relied on the support of the United States government to project around 5.1 million children aged 5 and under for malnutrition, and it supplied around 288,000 children of life treatment last year between January and October.
Small groups will find it difficult to survive. China Labour WatchA group based in New York with offices abroad which aims to end the forced workforce and the trafficking of Chinese workers, closes the programs which depend on $ 900,000 of annual aid from the department of ‘State, said Li Qiang, founder of the organization. Seven staff employees will be placed on unpaid leave and could leave for good, said Mr. Li, adding that employees who lose their work visas may have to return to China, where they could be examined by security agents .
Groups around the world who have relied on American funding are now “victims of this disruption, which leads to distrust of the United States government,” he said.
He continued: “This will further isolate the United States internationally. Nut national allies and allies for short -term gains will have lasting repercussions. »»
The distribution Caliotage too The president’s emergency plan for the relief of AIDS, or PEPFAR, the famous program launched by President George W. Bush which is credited with having saved more than 25 million lives. The program closure would probably cost millions of lives in the years to come, said health experts. The work of the program involves more than 250,000 health workers in 54 countries.
“When funding stops before the epidemic is under control, you erode the investments you have made in the past,” said Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, who heads the university of the university of the university CAP in South Africa.
Simultaneously, Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization prompted this group to tighten his belt, reduce travel and limit operations in the field.
Sunday evening, the employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were invited to immediately stop communicating with the WHO. and other international partners.
The power failure means that US officials are likely to lose access to information on human epidemics, including MPOX, Polio and emerging oropouche of the disease behind mosquitoes and animal diseases , like the pig flu, which could devastate the country’s agricultural industry, said Dr. Gawande, Dr. Gawande said.
USAID has contributed to containing 11 serious epidemics of Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers in the past four years. One of these diseases, Marburg, even broods now in Tanzania, with 15 confirmed cases and eight probable cases. Ten people died.
“This is a disease without test, treatment and without vaccine that has been approved,” said Dr. Gawande.
Monday, officials of the Trump administration asked organizations abroad to Stop distributing HIV drugs that have been bought with American funds, even if drugs are already in clinics.
In addition, officials from around the world have been informed that Pepfar data systems would be closed on Monday evening and that they should “prioritize the copy of documents and key data”, according to an email targeted by the New York Times . The system was maintained by an entrepreneur forced to stop the work due to the freeze.
About 90% of Dr. Bekker’s work in South Africa is funded by Pepfar and the National Institutes of Health. His team has helped test HIV and preventive drugs, and vaccines for the cocovid and human papillomavirus, or HPV, all used in the United States.
The closure of Pepfar, which represents 20% of the HIV budget in South Africa, would add more than half a million HIV infections and more than 600,000 related deaths in the country during the next decade, Dr. Bekker and his colleagues estimated. The effect is likely to be much worse in poor countries, such as Mozambique, where PEPFAR finances most of HIV programs.
Suddenly stopping treatment can endanger the lives of patients, but it can also increase the spread of the virus and lead to resistance to available drugs.
The actions of the Trump administration will cause lasting damage, especially to the Americans, said Asia Russell, executive director of the health group’s defense group.
“If you try to carry out an examination of all foreign help, including the PEPFAR, you can do it without attacking the programs by stopping them,” said Russell.
“It is extraordinarily dangerous and perhaps deadly to do it in this way,” she said, “but it is also a waste and ineffective.”
