The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to strengthening America’s commitment to the Western Hemisphere as never before, adopting a foreign policy rooted in shared values. It is part of President Joe Biden’s vision of a region that is healthy, secure, middle class, and democratic.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said, “We stand ready to help countries in the Americas strengthen democracy, fight corruption, and lay down the basic good governance necessary to attract that private investment, deliver services, and create the opportunities that young people seek and deserve.”
In Central America, President Biden has committed to investing $4 billion across the next four years to expand economic prosperity, strengthen good governance, and fight corruption in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
President Biden is the first U.S. President to issue a memorandum identifying the fight against corruption as a core national security priority. USAID, for the very first time, has launched an Anti-Corruption Task Force to support investigators and reformers who are working to expose corrupt actors and dismantle the systems that abet them.
When leaders show a willingness to respect checks and balances, and demonstrate commitment to fight impunity, as they have in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, they will find a very strong ally in the United States.
But when politicians undermine fights against corruption or weaken checks and balances, the U.S. will hold them to account, as it did recently when the U.S. sanctioned the Attorney General of Guatemala, Consuelo Porras, for her role in obstructing corruption investigations.
As Administrator Power said, the U.S. is committed to building on transformational partnerships with the private sector that have done remarkable things, such as linking Colombia’s private sector, small businesses, and farms to profitable global supply chains. In Colombia, USAID partnerships with the financial sector have enabled local banks to mobilize more than $1 billion since 2015 in commercial money to nurture economic development in areas affected by the country’s 50-plus-year war.
“To meet this moment,” said Administrator Power, “we must embrace the people of Latin America and the Caribbean as partners in the quest for a more equal, prosperous hemisphere.”
