"I hereby determine that the provision of United States assistance to Bolivia in Fiscal Year 2020 is vital to the national interests of the United States," Trump said on Monday.
In November, then-President Evo Morales under military pressure stepped down from his fourth term in office and fled to Mexico. Most of Bolivia’s senior government officials also resigned and sought asylum in the Mexican embassy in La Paz. In the meantime, the Senate's second vice speaker, Jeanine Anez, declared herself interim president, and the new authorities announced a presidential election for mid-March.
Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa, the Venezuelan ambassador to Russia, said last month that the unrest that erupted in Bolivia after the country's presidential election was an ideal moment for the United States to successfully overthrow Morales.
