USAID is going away. Here's what it's been doing in South America

The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver a major blow to efforts including humanitarian assistance in Colombia, conservation efforts in Brazil and coca eradication in Peru — South American countries that have been a priority for the support. Even if some foreign aid resumes after the 90-day suspension ordered by President Donald Trump, many USAID-backed projects focus on areas he has derided as ideological: climate change, biodiversity and minority and women’s rights, so several recipients fear their projects are now dead. Colombia has long been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance in South America. Recent USAID money has supported emergency humanitarian aid to more than 2.8 million Venezuelans who fled their country's economic crisis.