High-Level Corruption Continues to Make Headlines in Latin America

 
One glance at the region's newspapers is enough to reveal the corruption scandals plaguing many Latin American countries. When it comes to explaining these cases, opinion is divided as to whether they are a sign of progress in the battle against corruption or merely more proof of the depth of the hemisphere's problems.

The latest news is the charges against former president Carlos Menem of Argentina. A few months ago, the story making the headlines was the Fujimori-Montesinos case in Peru (back in the news recently after Montesinos was captured in Venezuela). Other scandals in the region include the resignation of Brazilian Senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães and a group of high-level Mexican officials accused of corruption.

Adding to this already depressing scenario is the corruption perception index published annually by Transparency International. The Latin American countries that fared worst in the ranking were Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Bolivia.

Perhaps the greatest damage wrought by corruption scandals is their ability to undermine public trust in the government and reveal the weakness of a country's institutions. "Corruption scandals create skepticism about politicians, the judicial system and democracy itself," notes Miami Herald commentator Andrés Oppenheimer. Inevitably, he says, people will ask themselves, "if government officials steal and get away with it, why should the rest of us obey the law and pay our taxes?"

In a study carried out last year, Colombian businessmen cited the battle against corruption as one of the government's priorities. However, further questioning revealed their lack of confidence in this process and in politicians in general. Ironically, 18% of the 500 businessmen participating in the study acknowledged that they would do nothing if confronted with proof of corruption. This seems to confirm the conclusion of Dr. Daniel Pécaut of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris, that corruption is a problem that extends beyond the government to the private sector in Latin America. The result, he says, is "unprecedented confusion over what is legal and what is illegal."

Despite the recent high-profile cases, some positive steps have been taken to combat corruption in the Americas. At the hemispheric level, representatives of 22 member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) have signed an accord to establish a mechanism to follow up on anti-corruption measures. And at the national level, Mexico and Chile have set up Internet sites (compranet.gob.mx and chilecompra.cl, respectively) that offer a public accounting of government spending. Such measures give citizens greater access to public information, putting them in the position to "audit" their own governments.

According to Transparency International, the best antidotes for corruption in Latin America are knowledge and information, tools for mediation and the creation of a sound ethical infrastructure. Above all is the need for collective oversight mechanisms to support the efforts of those committed to transparency and zero tolerance of corruption.