Top of the Morning: Bolivia Expels USAID; Brahimi to Resign

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Bolivia Expels USAID

Bad news for the thousands of Bolivians served by USAID’s health programs. “President Evo Morales acted on a longtime threat Wednesday and expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development for allegedly seeking to undermine Bolivia’s leftist government, and he harangued Washington’s top diplomat for calling the Western Hemisphere his country’s ‘backyard.’ Bolivia’s ABI state news agency said USAID was ‘accused of alleged political interference in peasant unions and other social organizations.’” (WaPo http://wapo.st/Yno2XU)

Brahimi to Resign as Syria Envoy

His job was always going to be impossible so long as the Security Council remained so divided. “Lakhdar Brahimi wants to resign as the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria because his efforts to find a political solution to the escalating conflict have failed, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday. Brahimi has found that speaking for two organizations with different views on Syria has made his role of trying to mediate a political transition almost impossible, two diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because their discussions with Brahimi were private.” (Miami Herald http://hrld.us/Ynom9c)