2019 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 109-121
The Peace Corps, a governmental agency founded in 1961, has sent more than 230,000 US citizens to volunteer all over the world. Since the agency began in the middle of the Cold War, it has been stigmatized as US Imperialism in some countries. In its first decade of operations, the Peace Corps was expelled from eleven host countries, including Bolivia, due to rising anti-American sentiment. In case of Bolivia, scholars link the expulsion to the country's opposition to US policy and political tension due to the Peace Corps' population control efforts. Public opinion there was strongly influenced by the political left-wing groups at that time. The academic literature has focused on the reasons behind the ejection of the program from Bolivia and has rarely examined the safety and security issues of volunteers. As a result, this paper aims to explore the experience of Peace Corps volunteers and its office in Bolivia from the period when sentiment began to turn against the agency to the evacuation of volunteers and closure of the program office. The research analyzes data collected at the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland, USA and mainly relies on official documents, telegrams, memos and program evaluations of the Peace Corps. The example of Bolivia demonstrates that international governmental volunteers who work in countries with significant anti-American sentiment face higher risks of violence, including attacks by mobs. The study concluded that the Peace Corps must prioritize the safety and security management of its volunteers who work under these challenging conditions.
