The threats to democracy in Latin America today are different than before. But they are very serious and alive and well. Through different routes, within the context of “democratic recession”, as the current situation in the region is described in the latest report of Latinobarometer. Certain international reactions to some of these “recessions” are also novel.
This recession refers to weak or threatened democratic institutions, from within and without, essentially due to corruption within State apparatuses. Political power used, therefore, as a tool of corruption in larger and more expansive dimensions and gangrenous extensions than in the past.
Within this “democratic recession” two components stand out.
On the one hand, the prevalence of political regimes that emerged from elections, yes, but problematic because in some of them corruption and organized crime have become integral parts or interacting with political power.
Secondly, an international order that is not painted on the wall and that is a politically active factor in institutional processes. It ranges from decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, of mandatory compliance, to substantive statements coming from democratic countries that can have a concrete impact on those who take their feet off the democratic plate.
These days, democratic processes threatened from within by corruption or authoritarianism in Guatemala and Peru have been primarily on the table.
In the first country, especially in the face of the different moves attributed to the so-called Pact of the Corrupt, to the super-powerful attorney general, María Consuelo Porras and her counterparts in Congress. The prosecutor is accused, among other things, of having been a factor in the harassment of judges and anti-corruption prosecutors in Guatemala, dozens of whom have had to seek asylum in the United States.
Forces coming from these spaces are those that seek to block the assumption of the Government by Bernardo Arévalo, democratically elected. The OAS decided last week to apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Guatemala and the US Government, for its part, withdrew the visas of 300 Guatemalan politicians, congressmen and representatives of the private sector and their families for “undermining democracy and the State.” of law.”
In Peru there does not seem to be a formalized Pact of the Corrupt, but there is an increasingly similar situation. Therefore, the impediment to more than 300 Guatemalans linked to the pact from traveling to the United States and visiting, for example, interlocutors who could be of their preference, such as Mickey Mouse and Donald in Florida, could perfectly be extended to dozens of congressmen from Peru. , and other politicians and businessmen around them, involved in corruption or irregular service to private interests. “Where there is the same reason, the same right prevails,” says a well-known saying.
With the legitimacy of Congress and the Government in a low digit in Peru, the institutional environment has been shaken by criminal networks or networks at the service of private interests operated by congressmen. In perspective, there is also a confrontation with the international community. Among other things, due to the refusal to comply with a mandatory decision of the Inter-American Court, as communicated by the Peruvian Government to the Court last week.
There are many, but there are two factors that have been crucial and concurrent in this serious institutional deterioration in Peru.
On the one hand, the alleged criminal organization that the questioned prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, would have built (today suspended by the National Board of Justice). She not only set up an illicit network to favor it, but also cornered and removed the team of anti-corruption prosecutors who had been diligently investigating cases such as Lava Jato and other serious acts of transnational corruption.
On the other, the unicameral legislative power. Operating for the own benefit of its members, against fundamental national interests and in favor of particular interests. Presided over by a person convicted – of fraud – by the criminal justice system and with dozens of congressmen under criminal investigations, many of them dormant thanks to the benevolence of the nation's currently suspended prosecutor.
As if this fiscal/congressman complicity were not enough – oh coincidence! – they take steps in Congress to alleviate the “uncomfortable” investigations into corruption. For example, by perpetrating a law – last week – that dilutes the useful procedural tool of effective collaboration that has given such good results in anti-corruption investigations in Peru in the last five years. They mark a route of rescue and impunity for those investigated – in Congress or outside of it. Faithful copy of the Pact of the Corrupts of Guatemala.
In parallel, the use of parliamentary power to finish destroying the Amazon forest, in blatant and rude benefit of particular interests and in serious affront to the environment and the interests of the population. The most recent step: the crucial Forestry and Wildlife Law, adopted last week, with the contrary opinion of the Executive, after a “long debate” of 10 minutes. After Brazil, Peru follows in the area of Amazonian forests.
The approved law, within a visible framework of pressure and lobby of private interests, suspends forest zoning, excludes the Ministry of Agriculture (which conducted this zoning) and eliminates the authorization procedure for change of use in private areas, which was a protection tool against irregular logging.
The immense areas of forest already deforested are going to be privatized, legitimizing the massive and illegal deforestation of more than 140,000 hectares produced in recent years by illegal logging, illegal mining and drug trafficking. Disastrous law at the service of particular interests when Peru is already the third country (after Brazil and Bolivia) in deforested Amazon areas. An “anything goes” thanks to a Congress full of people prosecuted by criminal justice.
With the history of punitive measures against congressmen, politicians and businessmen in Guatemala, it would not be unusual for the US Government to study and consider, at the time, a similar decision in Peru against certain politicians, congressmen and businessmen for “undermining democracy and the Rule of law”. To this could be added forceful inter-American reactions due to the refusal of the Government of Peru to comply with binding decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Bye Donald and Mickey? Forever?
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#Bye #Donald #Mickey..