The Bush Administration’s budget for fiscal year 2005, presented to Congress in the first week of February, contains some discouraging news for Latin America.

The major programs for humanitarian assistance, providing aid to address poverty and fund development, have taken a hit. Child Survival programs for Latin America, which provide child and maternal health and family planning services, were cut almost 12% ($17.2 million), to $130.3 million. Development assistance programs, which support agricultural assistance, microenterprise, and other programs, were cut almost 10% ($26.1 million), to $241.7 million. The Inter-American Foundation, which provides funding for small-scale projects, was cut by 6% ($1 million) to $15.18 million.

New Initiatives--Less than Meet the Eye

The Bush Administration has showcased its “compassionate conservatism” internationally by funding two major initiatives, the “Millennium Challenge” and contributions to the global fight against HIV/AIDS. While many applauded the White House’s interest in these issues, the amounts actually requested by the White House from Congress for both initiatives are considerably less than the sums announced with great public fanfare. In addition, cuts in similar programs partially offset the increases in these new initiatives.

The Bush Administration requested $2.5 billion in 2005 to fund the Millennium Challenge, a new account set up to provide assistance to the poorest countries, less than the $3.3 billion which the White House had originally promised. Moreover, regular humanitarian and development accounts were cut by nearly $400 million from last year’s levels, according to Interaction, an association of aid agencies. The President’s HIV/AIDS initiative is offset partially by a decrease of $350 million, according to Interaction, in US contributions to the Global Fund set up internationally to provide resources to address the AIDS pandemic.

Neither the Millennium Challenge nor the President’s HIV/AIDS program provide much assistance to Latin America. The Millennium Challenge provides funding only to countries that meet certain strict criteria and with a per capita income of less than $1415 in 2005, which leaves out most Latin American nations. The HIV/AIDS initiative is limited to fourteen countries, of which only two, Haiti and Guyana, are from the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Military Aid, and Aid to Colombia, Steady

One area of funding for Latin America remains steady – military assistance. Foreign military financing reaches $126.5 million in the 2005 request for Latin America, of which $108 million is for military training and equipment for Colombia. International Military Education and Training (IMET), which funds training of Latin American security forces, holds steady at $14 million. (Detailed information about US assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean is available on a website maintained by the Latin America Working Group, the Center for International Policy and the Washington Office on Latin America at www.ciponline.org/facts .)

For 2005, the Bush Administration once again requests a whopping $731 million for the Andean Counternarcotics Initiative, of which $463 million is devoted to Colombia, substantial sums to Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and smaller quantities to Brazil and Venezuela. While this package includes funding for alternative development programs that help small farmers switch away from drug crops to legal crops, as well as for judicial reform, over 65% of the total is for military and police aid.

For Colombia, almost 78% of the budget can be expected to be military and police aid (when the $108 million in foreign military financing, 1.7 million in IMET, and estimated $100 million generally included in the Defense Department’s budget are added to the Andean Counternarcotics Initiative). While the initial impetus for aid to Colombia was to fight drugs, the US mission was expanded in 2002 to fight both drugs and terrorism, thus permitting direct support for the Colombian army in its war against guerrilla forces. For Colombia, it’s not “guns and butter,” but “guns, guns, guns and butter.”

Big Boost for Border Security

Despite putting forward an immigration reform proposal in 2004, the Bush Administration continues to increase the Department of Homeland Security’s budget for security measures along the US border with Mexico. Many of these plans are described as national security measures. However, they follow a much longer pattern of anti-migrant programs, and meet requests from the Border Patrol that have been pending since before September 11, 2001. First in line is a $64 million increase in spending on technology for the border – primarily remote video surveillance cameras– and a new $10 million budget to begin flying unmanned drones. Overall, there is a $224 million (10%) increase in the border security budget. While some of this budget will go to guarding the northern border with Canada, less than 10% of the Border Patrol’s budget has traditionally gone to security there.

Also complicating the political message in President Bush’s immigration reform proposal is a large increase in the budget for immigrant deportation. Though President Bush’s immigration reform proposal would provide visas for workers who are currently in the country – providing them legal status without disrupting the availability of workers – his 2005 budget proposes a $100 million increase for the detention and removal of illegal migrants currently in the US. If immigration reform is truly a priority for 2004, this budget line confuses that message.

While security consistently gets boosts in the 2005 budget proposal, domestic preparedness is taking some serious hits. Though the Federal Emergency Management Agency gets an overall increase in its budget of $1.8 billion dollars, almost all of the increase is dedicated to Biodefense – preparing the US against a biological attack. In the meantime, non-natural disaster funds have been slashed by $220 million (32%). Following this trend, the Office for Domestic Preparedness, which funds first responders (such as local police and firefighters), is taking a significant cut in its funding of $805 million (19%). The biggest cuts come to state and local grants; citizen corps; and state and local training, exercises, and technical assistance. All in all, programs promoting national defense get big boosts, but on-the-ground programs to respond to an emergency are dealt a serious setback.

Lost in the Fine Print

The Bush Administration has made an interesting choice to scale back Latin America programs in an election year in which the Latino vote is important. Deep in the fine print of the budget, the White House may hope these cuts go unnoticed.

Note: The numbers cited are from the document “Summary and Highlights: International Affairs Function 150, Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request,” available at http://www.state.gov/m/rm/rls/iab/2005. See also “Interaction Reacts to FY05 Budget Request,” Statement by Mary E. McClymont, CEO Interaction, at www.interaction.org .

--Lisa Haugaard and Sean Garcia, Latin America Working Group