USAID Freeze Is Cutting Deep In Colombia's Poorest Region

The aid freeze being carried out by President Donald Trump has sent shockwaves through Colombia, where 70% of all humanitarian assistance was provided by the U.S. last year.

In the weeks since, some 57 partner organizations have been affected by the suspension of about $67 million in funds, impacting 1.4 million Colombians.

In Chocó, Colombia's most impoverished department, which is sitting on the border with Panama, government officials and community leaders are warning of the devastating impact of Trump's aid freeze on the region.

Chocó is historically underdeveloped, with some 67.7% living in relative poverty and 43.5% in extreme poverty, according to the most recent census.

The United Nations has highlighted Chocó as a high-priority area for development goals including the provision of access to clean drinking water, education and healthcare.

The region is also an epicenter of Colombia's armed conflict and over a third of the population were forcibly confined to their homes due to violence in 2024.

In Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, the Latin Times spoke to multiple regional ministers who said the aid cuts will hamper the government's ability to deliver on development goals.

Among them was the department's Secretary of Economic Development, Yimy Leiter Aguilar Mosquera. "The impacts are very negative. They are very negative because when USAID stops providing solid support in terms of investment in the territory, obviously we are going to stop having the chance to provide better opportunities to our communities," explained Leiter.

Aguilar described how many USAID-funded projects were immediately impacted by the funding freeze. These included projects working to improve safety in the mining industry, a key economy in Chocó, by dissuading the use of mercury which contaminates water supplies.

Secretary of Education Yina Reales also spoke to the Latin Times about the impact of the cuts on her department. "We are going to be very affected because... U.S. cooperation was intrinsically related to projects to strengthen entrepreneurship, projects for the LGTBI community, educational projects," Reales said.

The secretary added that many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the region have been hit by the funding freeze; UNICEF's program in Chocó reportedly lost 20% of its endowment and the World Food Program lost a whopping 90% of its financing.

The Secretary of Education said that the government has only been able to raise funds for a third of what it needs to deliver vital development goals this year.

Many Colombian employees in USAID-funded programs have also lost their jobs as a result of the funding freeze.

The Latin Times spoke to a senior figure in one such project, who asked to remain anonymous. He described his disbelief at the news of the funding freeze and his hope that it would be resolved quickly.

"I thought that the program was going to be temporarily suspended, but as the days went by, things began to look bad," the aid worker said. He added that the orders had an impact on day one.

"From day one, the order to suspend activities led to the cancellation of contracts that were already in place," he recalled. Many suppliers and contractors were left out of pocket, the worker added, as they had already paid for materials for the cancelled projects.

In the weeks following Trump's announcement, more and more layoffs were announced and the worker saw 90% of his colleagues be dismissed.

Government officials are also in the dark about what will happen next. "To be honest, we don't know what's going to happen," said the Secretary of Education.

She believes that there are few alternatives to USAID, highlighting budgetary constraints among the national government.

The aid worker explained that some of the funding can be made up by international organizations and other national governments, but that it will be incredibly difficult to fill the hole left by USAID.

"I can't see who else could provide us with the sheer volume of assistance," said the aid worker.

In addition to challenges finding a benefactor as wealthy as the U.S., others highlighted the relationship that Chocó has built with Washington over the years.

The Secretary of Development, who has worked closely with his American counterparts, worries that it will be difficult to develop the same camaraderie with other countries.

"We're used to a process with USAID that has been a very friendly one, of brotherhood, and not everyone has the capacity to become your brother," said Leiter.

The intimate ties from decades of cooperation make the USAID withdrawal even more painful. The aid worker described feeling abandoned by the Trump administration.

"The way we've been treated is outrageous... I'm running out of words to describe it. The contempt on the part, it is not even on the part of the United States, it is on the part of the president," he said. He went on to warn that the cuts will have a blowback for the U.S.. Chocó is home to the Darién Gap border region with Panamá, a key migrant crossing point towards North America.

Some of the first programs to be slashed in the region were related to legal migration and preventable disease.

"Whether the migration is legal or not, we will see migration. What prevents the United States from being affected by untreated diseases due to the non-transfer of resources?," he said. "The impact is going to be a two-way street."