MORE THAN GAY RIGHTS

Former US Ambassador Luis G. Moreno is defending the role played by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Jamaica, insisting that funding from the agency was used to do “much more” than strengthening advocacy for the LGBT community.

Moreno, a 35-year career diplomat who served in Jamaica under the Barack Obama administration from 2015 to 2017, said people are choosing to focus on the work done by USAID for LGBT rights because this is a hot-button issue in Jamaica.

He said the level of homophobia is high in Jamaica, noting that hostility and violence against gay people have been significant.

“What we wanted to do was to create dialogue and have people speak to each other, exchange points of view, and also to promote equality in Jamaica like what was our policy throughout the world under the Obama administration,” Moreno told The Gleaner on Sunday.

His comments follow criticisms levelled against the agency by Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who listed Jamaica among countries she said benefited wrongfully from USAID.

Mace claimed that USAID was being used to fund and promote agendas which run counter to an America first policy.

Last week, the South Carolina representative mentioned in a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing that USAID had allocated US$1.5 million (J$225 million) to strengthen support for LGBT rights in Jamaica.

The agency has been a lightning rod for Republican critics and has landed in the cross hairs of the Donald Trump administration, which has been direct about gutting its programmes and reeling back global support for vulnerable communities in mostly developing countries.

USAID is an independent government agency and the principal US organisation responsible for administering tens of billions of dollars in humanitarian aid overseas each year. It has been doing so for six decades.

Nearly all foreign assistance has been frozen by Trump, who said the agency is being run by “radical lunatics”.

Moreno, however, dismissed such claims, asserting that USAID’s work had positively impacted Jamaica and many countries worldwide.

“We were very active in PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) between treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. We also did a lot of economic development for small businesses. We did good [for] governments,” said Moreno, recalling that USAID sponsored the leadership debate between Dr Andrew Holness and Portia Simpson Miller in the run-up to the 2016 general election.

In addition, Moreno highlighted USAID’s involvement in anti-corruption initiatives as well as support for the Electoral Commission of Jamaica and disaster response efforts.

“During a couple of storms, we’ve had what we call DART (disaster assistance and recovery) teams from USAID. We did coordination meetings. We did things like working with the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force) and US SOUTHCOM (Southern Command) aircraft to transport JDF to places where there were natural disasters in the region.

“It’s such a force for good and for helping people. I don’t see how anyone could be against it. It’s just mind-boggling,” said Moreno.

He said criticisms of the agency are “very shortsighted”, pointing to, as an example, the more than US$1 billion in contracts provided to American farmers to supply food globally to people in need.

He said as a result of the order halting USAID activities, food sat on ships rotting, leaving the people in Sudan, the Congo and Gaza who benefit from these programmes to starve.

“All these people saying America first, it is kind of America first because what we’re doing is we’re showing the world what the United States is, and if we don’t do these things, China, Russia and Iran – the Middle East – they’re going to fill that vacuum and they’re going to have the influence,” he said.

Critics of the Trump administration’s decision to clamp USAID have argued that the US runs the risk of ceding soft power to other major foreign powers many of which, they say, offer aid with strings attached.

Moreno added that USAID ran programmes that targeted at-risk youth who could fall prey to terrorist groups as well as programmes in Central America to create economic conditions that prevent citizens from wanting to leave and immigrate northwards. He noted that these programmes are long-term and are not designed to work overnight, but said sometimes “unfortunately, in the US, we get tunnel vision and have to see instant results”.

“The most tragic thing about this is that USAID is being portrayed as being corrupt, as being political [and] all these things. I can assure you, I spent 35 years working side by side, shoulder to shoulder with USAID officers, offices and programmes. It’s nothing of the sort,” the former ambassador asserted.

He warned that such misconceptions, especially those spread on social media, harm both global development efforts and the US’s standing in the world.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com