The Latin American Report # 514

The Foggy Bottom Congressional Budget Justification for the next fiscal year was released this week. The notification reaffirms some points already contained in the Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request. Still, we should wait to see how the so-called America First Opportunity Fund (A1OF) will be projected in the classic Appendix II of the CBJ, which is unavailable so far. The A1OF, if Trump's aggressive foreign aid reform is approved, could reflect those funds that currently are allocated to accounts closely related to “democratic assistance”, such as the Economic Support Fund—which, for example, has been the channel for financing political subversion against Cuba—, the Transition Initiatives account—which financed the ill-fated Zunzuneo project, aka the Cuban Twitter—, and the Democracy Fund. As anticipated in the discretionary budget request, the Trump administration zeroed out the budget entry for the National Endowment for Democracy in its proposal. Concerning USAID, the State Department proposes the following legislative language:

The Secretary of State may reorganize the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) pursuant to a reorganization plan transmitted to Congress, which may provide for the abolition of such agency and the transfer of its functions to the Department of State.

For the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Foggy Bottom foresees just over $150 million solely to ensure its “orderly shutdown.” Here, it remains to be seen how the specific budget request for this agency, which oversees the operations of Radio and TV Martí—two useless creations through time but very sensitive for the Cuban exile community in Florida—, will affect the continuity or otherwise of these stations. Following with the Cuban issue, from what I understand from this op-ed signed by NED President and CEO Damon Wilson, it could be that the endowment will not even receive the usual funding of more than $6 million—for its Cuban chapter—through the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Incidentally, this diligent bureau, which covers at least its Cuba-related grants with a cloak of secrecy typical of the CIA, will remain in business-as-usual mode, with a budget reduction that is unrelated to the core of its mission. How will congressional appropriations committees react to Trump's proposal? Will a bipartisan agreement be reached before the end of this year? I see the latter as difficult.

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