“We firmly reject these types of statements (…), I reject the claim that they were leaked,” Prada replied to a question from a journalist who pointed out that this complaint had been made by former President Evo Morales.
The headline states that it will never be “suitable for filtering interests other than foreign interests”.
Prada reiterated that “I have principles and a militancy based on dignity and sovereignty,” recalling that in 2013 businessman Samuel Doria Medina published a report to also discredit the “Bolivia Cambia, Evo met” program.
He stressed that it was not for this reason that it could be said that back then, during the Morales government, “a colleague from there (from the executive branch) gave the information”.
The minister recalled that during the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020), a special consultancy was commissioned to study the program and that it is not surprising that all this information is now being made public.
Asked if it was the de facto regime that leaked the information to the United States, the headline said, “I have no doubt that they (the information) should have leaked and not now, throughout the de facto government, (was) one of the programs they most investigated.”
On July 19, in response to the attacks published by Connectas, Prada defended the Bolivia-Cambia program and reiterated that after the restoration of democracy with President Luis Arce’s election victory, the paralyzed work of the Special Projects Unit (UPRE) programs had resumed.
“We regret the political abuse used to attack programs like this, which are so useful,” she said at a press conference accompanied by UPRE Director General Gonzalo Rodríguez.
The minister denounced that this type of criticism, essentially related to certain external funding, aims to “politically influence not only the program but also a government effort, we are talking specifically about the Connectas organization”.
According to official figures, between 2011 and 2019, “Bolivia Cambia, Evo Compliance” financed the implementation of 5,386 projects with an investment of 14,521,301,602 Bolivians (about two billion dollars), an investment that significantly reduced the social abyss inherited from neoliberal governments.
According to its website (connectas.org/about-us/), since 2016 this NGO has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which French intellectual Thierry Meyssan has denounced as a legal showcase for the US Central Intelligence Agency.
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