Latin America: The Challenge of Corruption

This is the third in a series of articles on the challenges facing Latin America. The first dealt with the struggle between right and left in Latin American politics. The second dealt with the competition between China and the United States for influence and outright economic advantage in the region.

This third one deals with what I consider to be the most important challenge facing Latin America – corruption.

Structurally, the region is rife with political power concentrated in few hands and where loyalty is less to the state than to the cacique or boss who moves from position to accompanied by a coterie of followers. What does this basic failing produce? 

First, most if not all Latin American countries lack a formal permanent bureaucracy in which expertise can develop over many years and where continuity in policies, programs, and projects can continue despite changes in the presidency.

Government officials at almost all levels change every four or five years, with incoming generations abandoning projects already started to impose their own agenda. This is akin to regularly reinventing the wheel. The waste is tremendous and public perceptions are that nothing ever really gets done.

Secondly, officials are neither paid well nor offered a pension at the end of a long period of service. As such, each incoming generation sees its role as building up their own personal fortunes while in power in order to survive after they leave when the next government takes office. 

In these systems, favors are always in play, influence is bought and sold, and the system rewards those who have power and money.

Many people lose hope for a better future. They are trapped in a complex system of laws that appear insurmountable unless one is willing to pay to circumvent them.

As well, public services such as education and health are either poor or non-existent for many citizens thereby limiting access to the poorer segments of society. This limits the region’s ability to grow with equality and equity and to reduce the extreme marginalization that exists in many Latin American countries.

Many voters ask what they have to lose by following leaders who promise heaven on earth but then quickly abscond with the nation’s wealth while decimating what few democratic institutions exist. The fact that these leaders never really deliver doesn’t preclude the electorate from falling for their mendacity repeatedly. 

Yet they don’t realize that they have the power to change leaders if they participate actively in the political process and demand more of their candidates.

Is there a way out?

The only answer is that new generations of voters and politicians lead the way in seeking to change the system.

That kind of leadership from all is essential if hopelessness is to give way to a sense of inclusion into the national dream that addresses the real structural problems of society.

So far, this type of grass roots action and political leadership has eluded the region.

Finally, a word about the inherent anti indigenous and anti-Afro-Latino racism in the region. The result is a mass of citizens who have been marginalized and who will remain so unless the mentality of the society average citizen changes to one that supports the creation of an environment that ensures equality and equity.

To be fair, there are many honest officials and politicians, and many people who are not racist. 

Unfortunately, more of them as well as more voters need to play a more active role in order to change a system that has historically been skewed towards corrupt practices and racism. Only by everyone evolving from the present can the fact that Latin America remains a region where corruption is rife, systemic, and endemic ever change. 

Edición: Laura Espejo