Regime change on the US agenda

In 2018, Kenneth Wollack bragged to the US Congress that the NED had given political training to 8,000 young Nicaraguans, many of whom were engaged in a failed attempt to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. Wollack was praising the “democracy-promotion” work carried out by NED, of which he is now vice-chair. Carl Gershman, then president of the NED and giving evidence, was asked about Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, who had been re-elected with an increased majority two years prior. He responded: “Time for him to go.”

Seven years later, Trump took office and it looked as if the NED’s future was endangered. On February 12, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Elon Musk froze disbursement of its congressionally approved funds. Its activities stopped and its website went blank. On February 24, Richard Grenell, special envoy to Venezuela, declared that “Donald Trump is someone who does not want to make regime changes.”

Washington’s global regime-change operations were immediately impacted and over 2,000 paid US collaborating organizations temporarily defunded. A Biden-appointed judge warned of “potentially catastrophic harm” to (not in her words) US efforts to overturn foreign governments. The howl from the corporate press was deafening. The Associated Press cried: “‘Beacon of freedom’ dims as US initiatives that promote democracy abroad wither.”

However, the pause lasted barely a month. On March 10, funding was largely reinstated. The NED, which “deeply appreciated” the State Department’s volte face, then made public its current program which, in Latin America and the Caribbean alone, includes over 260 projects costing more than $40 million.

US “soft power”

Created in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan following scandals involving the CIA’s covert funding of foreign interventions, the NED was to shift such operations into a more publicly palatable form under the guise of “democracy promotion.” As Allen Weinstein, NED’s first acting president, infamously admitted in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” In short, NED functions as a “soft power arm” of US foreign policy.

The NED disingenuously operates as a 501©(3) private nonprofit foundation. However, it is nearly 100% funded by annual appropriations from the US Congress and governed mainly by Washington officials or ex-officials. In reality, it is an instrument of the US state—and, arguably, of the so-called deep state. But its quasi-private status shields it from many of the disclosure requirements that typically apply to taxpayer-funded agencies.

Hence we encounter verbal gymnastics such as those in its “Duty of Care and Public Disclosure Policies.” That document loftily proclaims: “NED holds itself to high standards of transparency and accountability.” Under a discussion of its “legacy” (with no mention of its CIA pedigree), the NGO boasts: “Transparency has always been central to NED’s identity.”

But it continues, “…transparency for oversight differs significantly from transparency for public consumption.” In other words, it is transparent to the State Department but not to the public. The latter are only offered what it euphemistically calls a “curated public listing of grants” – highly redacted and lacking in specific details.

NED enjoys a number of advantages by operating in the nether region between an accountable US government agency and a private foundation. It offers plausible deniability: the US government can use it to support groups doing its bidding abroad without direct attribution, giving Washington a defense from accusations of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. It is also more palatable for foreign institutions to partner with what is ostensibly an NGO, rather than with the US government itself.

The NED can also respond quickly if regime-change initiatives are needed in countries on Washington’s enemy list, circumventing the usual governmental budgeting procedures. And, as illustrated during that congressional presentation in 2018 on Nicaragua, NED’s activities are framed as supporting democracy, human rights, and civil society. It cynically invokes universal liberal values while promoting narrow Yankee geopolitical interests. Thus its programs are sold as altruistic rather than imperial, and earn positive media headlines like the one from the AP cited above.

But a look at NED’s work in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba suggests very much the opposite.

Venezuela

Venezuela had passed an NGO Oversight Law in 2024. Like the US’s Foreign Agents Registration Act, but somewhat less restrictive, the law requires certification of NGOs. As even the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) – an inside-the-beltway promoter of US imperialism with a liberal gloss – admits: “Many Venezuelan organizations receiving US support have not been public about being funding recipients.”

The pace of Washington’s efforts in Venezuela temporarily slowed with the funding pause, as US-funded proxies had to focus on their own survival. Venezuelan government officials, cheering the pause, viewed the NED’s interference in their internal affairs as a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. In contrast, the US-funded leader of the far-right opposition, Maria Corina Machado, begged for international support to make up for the shortfall from Washington.

WOLA bemoaned that the funding freeze allowed the “Maduro government to further delegitimize NGOs” paid by the US. Hundreds of US-funded organizations, they lamented, “now face the grim choice of going underground, relocating abroad, or shutting down operations altogether.”

With the partial reinstatement of funding, now bankrolling at least 39 projects costing $3.4 million, former US senator and present NED board member Mel Martinez praised the NED for its “tremendous presence in Venezuela… supporting the anti-Maduro movement.”

Nicaragua

Leading up to the 2018 coup attempt, the NED had funded 54 projects worth over $4 million. Much of this went to support supposedly “independent” media, in practice little more than propaganda outlets for Nicaragua’s opposition groups. Afterward, the NED-funded online magazine Global Americans revealed that the NED had “laid “the groundwork for insurrection” in Nicaragua.

One of the main beneficiaries, Confidencial, is owned by the Chamorro family, two of whose members later announced intentions to stand in Nicaragua’s 2021 elections. The family received well over $5 million in US government funding, either from the NED or directly from USAID (now absorbed into the State Department). In 2022, Cristiana Chamorro, who handled much of this funding, was found guilty of money laundering. Her eight-year sentence was commuted to house arrest; after a few months she was given asylum in the US.

Of the 22 Nicaragua-related projects which NED has resumed funding, one third sponsor “independent” media. While the recipients’ names are undisclosed, it is almost certain that this funding is either for outlets like Confidencial (now based in Costa Rica), or else is going direct to leading opponents of the Sandinista government to pay for advertisements currently appearing in Twitter and other social media.

Cuba

In Latin America, Cuba is targeted with the highest level of NED spending – $6.6 million covering 46 projects. One stated objective is to create “a more well-informed, critically minded citizenry,” which appears laughable to anyone who has been to Cuba and talked to ordinary people there – generally much better informed about world affairs than a typical US citizen.

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized the NED’s destabilizing activities, such as financing 54 anti-Cuba organizations since 2017. He advised the US administration to review “how many in that country [the US] have enriched themselves organizing destabilization and terrorism against Cuba with support from that organization.”

Washington not only restored NED funding for attacks on Cuba but, on May 15, added Cuba to the list of countries that “do not fully cooperate with its anti-terrorist efforts.”

Hundreds of Evo Morales supporters arrived in La Paz in a powerful caravan demanding his right to run in the upcoming presidential elections, only to face tear gas and police repression near the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The mobilization highlights the ongoing political persecution against the former president and his movement.

On May 16, 2025, a large caravan of supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in La Paz to demand his registration as a presidential candidate for the August elections. The caravan, composed of campesinos, cocaleros, miners, and political leaders loyal to Morales, was met with a heavy police presence and the use of tear gas to disperse protesters near the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) headquarters.

The caravan broke through police cordons near the TSE, where hundreds of officers were deployed within a three-block radius to prevent Morales supporters from entering the building. Chemical agents were used against demonstrators gathered in Abaroa Square, Sopocachi, as they peacefully demanded free, transparent, and unrestricted elections and the respect of their social and political rights.

Morales’ supporters denounced the repression as an expression of the government’s authoritarianism and racism, emphasizing their commitment to a peaceful, democratic, and constitutional protest. The former president himself affirmed on social media that the march was a “second great March to Save Bolivia,” calling on Bolivians to stand united against political persecution and discrimination.

The political tension stems from a recent Constitutional Court ruling barring any individual who has held elected office twice from running again, which directly affects Morales’ candidacy. Despite this, Morales and his supporters reject the decision as politically motivated, asserting their right to participate in the electoral process. The final decision on candidate eligibility will be made by the Electoral Tribunal by June 6, after the registration period closes on May 19.

The caravan was led by key figures from the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), including senators, deputies, and union leaders, reflecting the broad base of support Morales continues to enjoy among Bolivia’s marginalized communities. The campesina leader Juanita Ancieta declared that the march would enter La Paz with strength and determination, warning the government that any provocation would be the regime’s responsibility.

Senator and cocalero leader Leonardo Loza confirmed Morales’ presence with the caravan and urged police not to respond with repression. The movement’s resilience and unity symbolize the ongoing struggle for social justice, indigenous rights, and political sovereignty in Bolivia, standing firm against attempts to silence their voice.

The West seeks to provoke conflicts in the Middle East to own the regional countries’ resources at any price it wants. On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the U.S. has begun an “endless war” across the world to plunder other countries’ resources and even human workforce.

The West seeks to provoke conflicts in the Middle East to own the regional countries’ resources at any price it wants, Pezeshkian said at the opening ceremony of the Tehran Dialogue Forum, a two-day event that has drawn 200 foreign delegations, including senior government officials and representatives of international organizations, to discuss regional and global challenges.

Pezeshkian added that Iran has nothing to hide and will under no circumstances stop its “peaceful nuclear program.” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, talking about the Iran-U.S. indirect talks at the ceremony, said Iran wants “a fair and balanced agreement that would be formed within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and based on full respect for Iran’s nuclear rights and guarantee the removal of sanctions in an objective manner.”

“Iran is committed to diplomacy and expects the cruel and unilateral sanctions, which have directly targeted our people, to be truly and tangibly lifted,” he said, adding that Iran is ready to open a new chapter in its ties with Europe if the latter has a real determination and adopts an independent approach towards Iran.

The Iranian and U.S. delegations have held four rounds of indirect talks on Tehran’s nuclear program and the lifting of U.S. sanctions in the Omani capital Muscat and Italy’s Rome.

Meanwhile, Iran and three European countries — France, Germany and Britain, collectively known as the E3 — held a high-level meeting in Türkiye’s Istanbul on Friday on the latest developments in the Iran-U.S. indirect talks, the sixth round of such talks between Iran and the E3 since September 2024, which have covered Tehran’s nuclear program and the removal of sanctions, among other issues.