Bolivia on Monday accused the U.S. government of preventing it from receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in aid merely because of political differences between the two nations.
Bolivia has applied for around 756 million U.S. dollars from the U.S.-run development fund the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
But the bid presented by Bolivia has been put on hold as a result of increasing political tension between the two sides, Bolivian Planning for Development Minister Graciela Toro Ibanez told the local radio station Red Erbol.
"The political condition should not have anything to do with the technical criteria," Toro said.
"We have presented the proposal, and it is a very good proposal and they (the U.S. side) recognized it. It is well elaborated, but for political reasons they preferred to temporarily suspend the fund," he claimed.
The MCA was launched in January 2004 to improve economic growth in developing countries.
While it was founded to take politics out of aid allocation, some critics, however, say the U.S. government has used the fund to increase political influence in the recipient countries.
U.S.-Bolivia tension escalated recently after coca growers in Bolivia's Chapare region expelled staff from the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) amid charges they were backing the Bolivian government's opponents.
The Bolivians have also been angered by U.S. criticism of Bolivia's constitutional reform, and there have been protests outside the U.S. embassy over Washington's offer of asylum to Bolivia's former Defense Minister Sanchez Berzain, who is accused of genocide.
The two sides have recalled ambassadors, with Philip Goldberg returning to the States and Gustavo Guzman being called back to Bolivia.
"What is happening is that the U.S. side considers that some political issues should be clarified first like the constitution, the treatment of USAID and the (U.S.) ambassador Goldberg," Toro said.
Source:Xinhua
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