As Liberland does not collect mandatory taxes, we do not force anyone to send their money to other countries. As Dr. Ron Paul, our most famous citizen, has pointed out, “Foreign aid is taking money from poor people in a rich country and giving it to rich people in a poor country."

Changing Assistance Patterns

Liberland, Croatia and U.S. Foreign Aid Programs

Since its founding, Liberland has sought friendship and good relations among the community of nations. Its policies are rooted in peace and freedom of commerce. Traditional nation-states tax their citizens and spend the funds abroad to buy influence and pursue foreign policy goals. Since the Cold War, aid has often been coupled with membership in military alliances. Such policies are carried out in service of the military-industrial complex or as direct benefits to well-connected corporate interests through loan guarantees, export subsidies and other distortions of the market. 

Even with no apparent strings attached, government-to-government development aid has often caused much more harm than good (see the devastating critique of it by late development economist and Mont Pelerin Society member Peter Bauer), enriching ruling elites of third-world nations in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. As Dr. Ron Paul, our most famous citizen, has pointed out, “Foreign aid is taking money from poor people in a rich country and giving it to rich people in a poor country."

“Foreign aid is taking money from poor people in a rich country and giving it to rich people in a poor country." - Ron Paul

As Liberland does not collect mandatory taxes, we do not force anyone to send their money to other countries. Our charitable campaigns - in large part managed by the non-profit Liberland Aid Foundation - are organized voluntarily and rely on the generosity of Liberland citizens and supporters. 

These LAF campaigns have helped people in need in Somaliland, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Serbia, Croatia, El Salvador, Peru, Cambodia and other places.

El Salvador

In 2021, when El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, we had the idea of running a campaign and making a donation to a worthy cause in this kindred, forward-looking and ambitious country. We found the ideal recipient in the Benjamin Bloom Children’s Hospital in San Salvador, which in fact provides care to children from surrounding countries too. Our supporters, excited about El Salvador’s bold foray into crypto and Liberland’s blossoming relation with it, pitched in over US 65K to the campaign at a moment’s notice. 

Liberland’s delegation to the country was given an official welcome and the Bitcoin donation was televised. In fact, our donation was the impetus for the hospital to enable its own Bitcoin wallet to receive the money. Our team also met with several ministers, parliamentarians and other officials, reviewing a series of economic proposals in which El Salvador and Liberland could jointly cooperate, focusing on entrepreneurship and job creation rather than handouts. These ranged from exporting Salvadoran goods to Serbia’s free trade zones to participating in President Bukele’s plans to build Bitcoin City. We were invited and thanked by President Bukele himself at the same event Bitcoin City was announced. However, something very curious happened next…

Croatia Attempts to Out-do Liberland

Almost out of nowhere, Croatia suddenly promised El Salvador a slightly larger amount of aid than Liberland’s donation. Apart from some military assistance to Ukraine and infrastructure aid to neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, where many Croats live, Croatia has virtually no Official Development Assistance (ODA) programs at all. 

Croatia itself is a huge welfare recipient, netting millions from the EU and the United States annually. However, they were not to be outdone by a neighboring upstart country. Croatia offered to top the Liberland campaign and signaled they would be willing to fund a handful of projects in order to dissuade their engagement with Liberland. 

We remain baffled as to why Croatia would spend taxpayer resources on discouraging something that would ultimately benefit them. A thriving Liberland would bring considerable business, investment and tourism to Croatia. We can bring more jobs to a region that has seen a mass exodus over the past few decades. After all, Liberland has a truly unique selling point - it can bring something to the region that Croatia cannot. Croatia obstinately ignores this huge opportunity at its own peril.

Influence-buying is not unknown in the international arena. The People’s Republic of China has a much larger and systematic program to persuade countries to de-recognize or otherwise not engage with the Republic of China (Taiwan). 

Serbia also strives to persuade other countries to not recognize Kosovo or to revoke their recognition of it, mainly through diplomacy, debt forgiveness, and technical and humanitarian assistance. Serbia does have a claim to Kosovo being an integral part of its history, however, and recognition of Kosovo could be seen as a violation of its territorial integrity - things that Croatia cannot claim with regard to Liberland.

We are unaware to what degree Croatia has maintained their pay-off plan of potential Liberland allies. In any case, the end result was sending its own taxpayer dollars overseas in a desperate bid to keep the eager Liberlanders down at all costs. We imagine that such a plan could become quite costly as Liberland opens dialogue with other U.N. member countries.

U.S. Cutting Off Croatia?

After Donald Trump took office, the Elon Musk-led and Ron Paul-inspired DOGE team revealed that taxpayer money was freely flowing to questionable projects and recipients through USAID. Trump signed an Executive Order suspending its operations and ordering the agency’s employees to come home. Activist courts tried to intervene, but the agency is in its final days, with certain functions being folded into the Department of State and others being completely cancelled. 

In addition to military aid, a significant amount of United States taxpayer aid to Croatia has come through USAID.

Does this mean US aid to Croatia is drying up? Maybe it should. Croatia often detains and expels U.S., U.K. and other non-EU citizens of Croatia-allied countries who simply want to visit Liberland. 

EU Funding of Croatia

EU citizens also suffer the excesses and indignities of Croatia’s Ministry of the Interior’s actions against persons and property, in spite of billions of euros being provided to Croatia by the EU over the last ten years (Croatia receives about 4½ times what it contributes). Why should our supporters in these countries pay for their own mistreatment? 

The actions of their border authorities have often run afoul of human rights concerns (See here, here, here and here). Although there are some nominal mechanisms for reporting irregularities, Croatian law enforcement and other state agencies have a disturbing lack of oversight. 

The shady dealings of the forestry agency, Hrvatske Šume - which notoriously raided the Liberland settlement and stole over a hundred thousand euros worth of our property - have raised eyebrows nationally, resulting in the entire board being dismissed. Šume has even drawn attention at the EU level for allegations of unfair practices and corruption. Hrvatske Šume is a 100% state-owned company, and since 1990 it exclusively manages and exploits all publicly owned forests in Croatia – and some outside of Croatia, namely Liberland. Šume has even crossed the border into Bosnia to harvest their resources. 

An EU member state needs to live up to its obligations to respect the Charter of Fundamental Rights and other directives that safeguard the rights of EU citizens. Given the Croatia government's violation of fundamental rights, we should investigate more closely how European taxpayers’ funds are being used in Croatia. 

What they do is not what anyone would finance voluntarily.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs