USAID announces investment in El Salvador for job training, protection of women

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, and the Embassy of that country announced a multi-million dollar investment in El Salvador for job training, prevention of violence against women, and security.

Power, who is on a tour of Central America tour and was previously in Honduras, gave a brief statement at the Jesuit Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador. She announced that the cooperation entity would invest US$30 million in El Salvador for job training.

“Here in El Salvador, I am proud to announce that USAID is going to make an investment of $30 million for job training to help prepare Salvadorans to take advantage of economic opportunities,” said the USAID administrator.

Power stressed that foreign assistance “definitely cannot solve all the world’s problems, but what we can do is support the leaders”.

She indicated that USAID seeks to invest so that (Salvadorans) can achieve “self-determination and prosperity, success and build a future here at home, in El Salvador”, a country impoverished and hit by gang violence, generated for years the migration of its inhabitants.

The USAID administrator recalled that the causes of migration are: the lack of economic opportunities and urgent protection from problems such as gangs and gender violence.

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in El Salvador indicated that USAID would also invest $35 million in preventing violence against women and up to $50 million for security.

Power’s visit to El Salvador comes almost a month after the U.S. aid agency announced the withdrawal of assistance to two government institutions due to the concern generated by the dismissal of five Supreme Court justices and the attorney general.

In mid-May, the agency indicated in a press release that it was the agency’s assistance to the National Civil Police (PNC) and the Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP).

Relations between El Salvador and the United States are not at their best after the defeat of ex-President Donald Trump, whom President Nayib Bukele considers “nice and cool”.

The US government is one of the most critical of the exclusion of the country’s judges and attorney general, so the special envoy to the Northern Triangle of Central America, Ricardo Zúñiga, recently indicated that “the best solution to the crisis that has opened is to return to the previous situation.”

However, Bukele has assured that the dismissal of constitutional magistrates and Attorney General Raul Melara is “irreversible”.