Usaid and the "independent" press

  • aplicacion - banner 728px

Following President Donald Trump's decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid), due to what he defines as "tremendous corruption," in all the countries where that entity has had an impact, a scandal of great dimensions has been unleashed due to the issues that have been uncovered.

In the Dominican Republic, for example, some with axes to grind against "disaffected" journalists have gone down the path of gossip, attacking the good name of veteran communicators, who have come out to defend their honor and advance their willingness to take legal action against the defamers.

However, the most serious and despicable issue of the behavior of the U.S. Government through that agency has been a shadowy laboriousness in many aspects, one of which has ended up undermining the reputation of an impressive number of media outlets in all these countries.

And the fact is that, when it emerges that Usaid has dedicated itself for decades to financing media and journalists to supposedly promote an "independent" press, in reality the intention was to put them against governments not aligned with Washington's policies, and that, through the undermining of the image of these regimes, it has been possible to foster the disaffection of the people and even provoke their destabilization.

In this way, the credibility of these media and opinion makers has been seriously harmed upon learning that their attitude was due to an obligation derived from the economic commitment.

That is to say, that those media and journalists are actually independent of the governments, but very dependent on the agency, because of the saying "who pays the piper calls the tune".

This issue is just a minimal portion of the agenda developed in many countries, as perhaps the most alarming has been the financing of groups disguised as civil society for whom the State should disappear and release public policies, even if it takes millions of people to hell.

Thanks to President Trump's attitude—which is, after all, retaliation—we have been able to verify the sinister role that the agency has played in many cases, which has also sheltered conspirators and destabilizers under the guise of a supposedly civilian quality. Good for Trump!

In the spotlight

  • aplicacion - banner 300px

  • banner altices 300x250 junio 2025

Explore more

When corruption is not protected by the presidential band

In the Dominican Republic, presidents don't fall because of the opposition. They fall because of something more intimate and devastating: their own family. When corruption shares the same last name as the presidential band, it ceases to be a case and becomes a sentence. It's not a contract that is judged: it's the entire credibility […]

We have a permanent constitutional back and forth

In 2015, an internal crisis within the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) forced the leadership of that organization to promote a constitutional reform to enable President Danilo Medina, who had been elected in 2012 through a constitution that prohibited consecutive re-election. Medina was eligible to try to return in 2020, that is, after a period, a […]

When the slander is coordinated and clumsy

For days, Leonardo Aguilera has been the target of a campaign as evidently coordinated as it is poorly executed. Defamation, slander, and half-truths circulate on networks and certain media with suspicious synchronicity. Who's sending them? Who's biting their nails? The formula is old: fabricate scandals where they don't exist, repeat lies until they seem like […]

The TV changed in DR

In 2025, live news streaming via YouTube on smart TVs leaves traditional television behind and transforms news consumption in the Dominican Republic.By: Pavel De Camps Vargas Who's dominating your home screen today? It's not traditional television. In the Dominican Republic, YouTube has taken over the television in this 2025, redefining the map of news consumption. […]

¿To govern or campaign? Abinader made it difficult

"I am a tolerant and democratic president, but everything has a limit... We will continue to govern for the people and, for that reason, I say to all pre-candidates and their coordinators: proselitizing acts to officials are not allowed. If they want to campaign, they must leave their positions." Thus spoke the head of state, […]

Development for the border

If anything has been highlighted by the prolonged Haitian crisis, it is the historical debt that the Dominican Republic has with its own border. The provinces that guard that line of more than 390 kilometers not only face the direct consequences of the collapse of the Haitian state, but have also been, for decades, forgotten […]