The fight against corruption in Latin America worsens, Venezuela in the queue, reveals report

The ability to fight corruption of Latin American countries has “deteriorated”, according to the annual index that ranks nations according to the effectiveness with which they combat this problem.

The Capacity to Fight Corruption Index (CCC), which has been published for the last five years, recorded for the first time a decrease in the regional average and “a clear worsening in most countries,” he told the voice of america Brian Winter, vice president of public policy for the Council of the Americas.

“Of the 15 countries we studied, 10 saw a drop in their numbers,” Winter explained, although “it wasn’t a very sharp drop, it was more of a gradual drop.”

“It’s not a reason to lose hope, but perhaps a yellow signal about the quality of the fight against corruption at the regional level,” Winter explained.

The Index is prepared by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) and Control Risks, and assesses the ability to detect, punish, and prevent corruption. The scale goes from 10 to the best, to zero the worst. Higher ranked countries are more likely to sanction corrupt actors, while lower ranked countries are more likely to have impunity.

The index analyzes 14 variables, such as the independence of judicial institutions, the resources to fight corruption and the state of the independent press.

Laura Lizarazo, principal analyst in charge of Colombia and Ecuador in the Department of Global Risk Analysis of Control Risks, says that the index shows “a generalized pressure on public institutions that do not have the capacity to provide answers and results consistently and forceful” and, at the same time, a presence of challenges in terms of corruption, such as the embezzlement of funds, irregularities in public contracting and in bidding processes.

In the tail: Venezuela and Guatemala

Venezuela continues at the bottom of the list for the fifth consecutive year. Together with Guatemala, it registered the greatest decrease in score, with 10.4% and 15%, respectively.

Theodore Kahn, associate director at Control Risks, explains that in the case of Venezuela, “the low result is not surprising,” since “it is a reflection of the process of institutional deterioration and erosion of democracy that the country has suffered for some time now.” several years and that has allowed the official party to co-opt or eliminate almost all the institutional, political and social checks and balances that normally exist in a democratic system”.

In addition, the institutions respond to the government’s political guidelines and “there is no healthy division of powers that allows controlling and punishing acts of corruption according to technical and legal criteria,” he added.

The collapse of their democracy and the humanitarian crisis lead to corruption, Winter added.

Guatemala (2.86) and Bolivia (2.56) are the other two countries that share the last places.

According to Winter, Guatemala has gone from being “what many consider a hybrid government, which is neither dictatorship nor democracy.”

Bolivia is a country that also “has lost institutional quality over the last few years… it seems that there have been legal cases to punish the enemies of the current government,” he said.

Another country of concern is Mexico (3.87), due to “the battle” that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is waging against independent institutions.

Guatemala and Mexico are the only two countries whose overall scores have declined every year since the index was first published in 2019.

a priority

Despite the drop in results, Winter points out that the Corruption continues to be a priority in the region and that the variation in the index is moderate.

Lizarazo said that the countries of Latin America “have robust, solid normative and regulatory developments to combat these practices… [Lo] have assumed as an urgent challenge. And it is an issue that is undoubtedly part of the public agenda.”

It also highlights that the fight against corruption “has lost some momentum… but it has not been abandoned.”

Uruguay (6.99 out of 10) once again occupied the first place in the Index -although it experienced a consecutive year of decline. Costa Rica (6.76) and Chile (6.67), despite moderate setbacks, also kept the second and third positions.

The organizations that develop the index explain that the objective is not to shame or discriminate against countries, but to encourage a debate based on public policies in order to help governments, civil society and the private sector to identify areas of success and deficiencies.

“The most interesting stories” are the countries that are in the middle of the index, where in the five years that it has been prepared they see a certain evolution, as is the case of the Dominican Republic (5.42) and Panama (5.39), Lizarazo said.

Panama posted the largest proportional increase in its overall score, driven mainly by improvements in its legal capacity and the “relative strengthening of its anti-money laundering laws,” Winter said.

Panama, the Dominican Republic and Paraguay improved their overall score for the third consecutive year.

In the Dominican Republic, the government has emphasized an anti-corruption process, Winter said.

The index shows that declines occurred in both countries at the top of the Index and those at the bottom of the Index, indicating that “no country is immune to stagnation or setbacks in the fight against corruption”.

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