section_path: Activities by region/Bolivia
section_name: Bolivia
paragraph_text: Bolivia
  
  USAID operated in the coca-growing Chapare region, including under a 1983 agreement to support crop-substitution programs to encourage other crops. No later than 1998, this funding was conditional on farmers eradicating all their coca plants. In 2008, the coca growers union affiliated with Bolivian President Evo Morales ejected the 100 employees and contractors from USAID working in the Chapare region, citing frustration with U.S. efforts to persuade them to switch to growing unviable alternatives. Other rules, such as the requirement that participating communities declare themselves "terrorist-free zones" as required by U.S. law irritated people, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network. "Eradicate all your coca and then you grow an orange tree that will get fruit in eight years but you don't have anything to eat in the meantime? A bad idea. The thing about kicking out USAID, I don't think it's an anti-American sentiment overall but rather a rejection of bad programs."
  
  Also in 2008, USAID's Bolivian programs under the Office of Transitional Initiatives and the Democracy Program, as well as separate funding by the National Endowment for Democracy, were the subject of critical investigative reports that documented them supporting political initiatives in regions governed by separatist movements. During the September 2008 political crisis, President Evo Morales expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg and spoke out against USAID interference. The US government had previously ended OTI spending in Bolivia and subsequently redirected Democracy Program funds to other purposes, while denying USAID had interfered in Bolivian politics.
  
  President Evo Morales expelled USAID from Bolivia on May 1, 2013, for allegedly seeking to undermine his government following ten years of operations within the country. At the time, the USAID had seven American staffers and 37 Bolivian staffers in the country, with an annual budget of $26.7 million. President Morales explained that the expulsion was because USAID's objectives in Bolivia were to advance American interests, not to advance the interests of the Bolivian people. More specifically, President Morales noted the American "counter-narcotic" programs that harms the interests of Bolivian coca farmers who get caught in the middle of American operations.
  
  Following the 2019 Bolivian political crisis that saw Jeanine Áñez 's assumption of power, President Áñez invited USAID to return to Bolivia to provide "technical aid to the electoral process in Bolivia". In October 2020, USAID provided $700,000 in emergency assistance in fighting wildfires to the government of Luis Arce.
  
  USAID operated in the coca-growing Chapare region, including under a 1983 agreement to support crop-substitution programs to encourage other crops. No later than 1998, this funding was conditional on farmers eradicating all their coca plants. In 2008, the coca growers union affiliated with Bolivian President Evo Morales ejected the 100 employees and contractors from USAID working in the Chapare region, citing frustration with U.S. efforts to persuade them to switch to growing unviable alternatives. Other rules, such as the requirement that participating communities declare themselves "terrorist-free zones" as required by U.S. law irritated people, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network. "Eradicate all your coca and then you grow an orange tree that will get fruit in eight years but you don't have anything to eat in the meantime? A bad idea. The thing about kicking out USAID, I don't think it's an anti-American sentiment overall but rather a rejection of bad programs."
  
  Also in 2008, USAID's Bolivian programs under the Office of Transitional Initiatives and the Democracy Program, as well as separate funding by the National Endowment for Democracy, were the subject of critical investigative reports that documented them supporting political initiatives in regions governed by separatist movements. During the September 2008 political crisis, President Evo Morales expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg and spoke out against USAID interference. The US government had previously ended OTI spending in Bolivia and subsequently redirected Democracy Program funds to other purposes, while denying USAID had interfered in Bolivian politics.
  
  President Evo Morales expelled USAID from Bolivia on May 1, 2013, for allegedly seeking to undermine his government following ten years of operations within the country. At the time, the USAID had seven American staffers and 37 Bolivian staffers in the country, with an annual budget of $26.7 million. President Morales explained that the expulsion was because USAID's objectives in Bolivia were to advance American interests, not to advance the interests of the Bolivian people. More specifically, President Morales noted the American "counter-narcotic" programs that harms the interests of Bolivian coca farmers who get caught in the middle of American operations.
  
  Following the 2019 Bolivian political crisis that saw Jeanine Áñez 's assumption of power, President Áñez invited USAID to return to Bolivia to provide "technical aid to the electoral process in Bolivia". In October 2020, USAID provided $700,000 in emergency assistance in fighting wildfires to the government of Luis Arce.