Transparency International: the current fight against corruption is not enough

Urgent action is needed. This was the message of the Transparency International organization in its annual report on the situation of corruption in the world published this Tuesday.

“The 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) shows that most countries are failing in the goal of ending corruption,” he points out. The document of the organism.

On a scale from 0 to 100 – with 0 being very corrupt and 100 not at all corrupt – Transparency International rates countries according to the levels of fraudulent conduct by their political class and power structures.

And, currently, the fight against corruption is insufficient. The proof of this “failed attempt” to end corruption throughout the world is that for more than a decade the global count regarding this evil has remained the same: 43 out of 100.

The reasons are various, from insecurity and the spread of conflicts to the weakness of public institutions. And it is that, according to TI itself, “corruption undermines the ability of governments to protect the population and erodes public confidence.”

In a highly complex and globalized world system, even countries with very high scores in the CPI ranking -such as Denmark or France- have contributed to the persistence of these corruption schemes through their relationship with these states and receiving their “dirty money”. “, something that allows corrupt senior officials to maintain their status and power.

There are several examples of this phenomenon, Denmark -the first on the list with 90 points- has sold arms to Saudi Arabia -with 51 points-, despite the fact that networks of corruption and violation of DD have been proven. H H. in the Arab country. In 2018, it stopped selling them due to the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and his involvement in the Yemen war.

And this case is not the only one. In 2007, the then president of France -with 72 points in the IPC-, Nicolas Sarkozy, fHe was accused of financing the campaign of Muammar Gaddafi, late dictator of Libya -with only 17 points on the list-. At the same time, in 2011 he decided arm the rebels on the other side of the Libyan conflict. Acts that contributed to the political destabilization of the country.

If we move to the regional level, the most striking cases are those of the United States -which has a score of 69- with its neighbors to the south. In Colombia -which has 39 points-, some declassified documents showed that the US Government had indications of random murders -or false positives- by the Colombian Army and, even so, continued to strengthen ties and send money to the Government for two decades.

The Latin American paradigm

The American continent coincides with the world score for the fourth consecutive year, with 43 out of 100 points in the IPC. The least favored region is Latin America, where the worst scores come from.

Among the most worrisome are Nicaragua -19 points-, Haiti -17 points- and Venezuela -14 points-. According to this report, in these countries it is very difficult to draw a line and differentiate criminal organizations from the same State.

In the case of Venezuela, with the worst performance in the region, the CPI indicates that 21% of the activities that contribute to its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) are illegal, carried out with violations of human rights.

In Haiti, the state does not have the capacity to deal with the gangs, which are in control of the poorest country in the region. The consequence of this institutional weakness and corruption is a constant increase in insecurity, to such an extent that illegal groups were able to assassinate President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.

If we go into Nicaragua, the lack of transparency and the crimes against dissidents by the government of Daniel Ortega -which has already been in power for 30 years- leave the country in a very bad light.

In other nations that follow them with high rates of corruption, the links between crime and the government have been demonstrated. One of the most recent examples is that of Honduras, whose former president Juan Orlando Hernández was prosecuted in the United States for drug trafficking crimes.

Another case is that of El Salvador, with thousands of unjustified arrests in a supposed “war” against gangs, after national media such as ‘El Faro’ reportedshow that President Nayib Bukele had agreed with them before trying to exterminate them.

This means that, along with the economy, corruption is one of the main concerns among Latin Americans. And it is that there are many criminal associations that have financed political campaigns to, later, be able to obtain revenue from their contribution.

This collusion between the State and illegal groups translates into worsening living conditions for citizens, with more poverty and insecurity.

Corruption networks fuel wildlife trafficking, illegal mining, illegal gold extraction and deforestation. In fact, they are one of the main causes of the dismantling of the Amazon, the largest humid forest in the world.

A country closely related to this problem is Brazil. Despite the bonanza that he went through in the 2000s with the governments of Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, the election of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 sank him in terms of corruption.

Transparency International indicates that former President Bolsonaro resorted to “corrupt maneuvers” to benefit political allies and dismantled anti-corruption structures. The result of these practices, in addition to the weakening of public institutions and the reversal of rights, resulted in the assault by ultra-rightists on the Planalto and the other two powers -legislative and judicial- in Brasilia after the possession of Lula da Silva.

Another country in the crosshairs is Colombia -with 39 points-, which is not registering the expected improvement with the election of the left-wing president Gustavo Petro. In addition to not having solved all the open fronts of the internal conflict, in 2021 it also registered a wave of murders of protesters and has a big problem with illegal groups and deforestation. In 2021, at least 138 DD advocates. H H. they were killed in the country.

But it’s not all bad news for the region, Uruguay holds the second position as the “cleanest” country in the Americas with 74 points. All this when considering that it has strong institutions and a well-functioning democracy.

After the balance, Transparency International recommends that the countries with the worst scores in the Americas strengthen their public institutions and cooperation between them in order to end the problem of corruption. Everything to reach true independence between powers and achieve better living conditions for its citizens.

However, it should also be noted that, despite being a non-governmental organization, almost 60% of Transparency International’s funding comes from governments. Major contributors include the US State Department and the European Commission.

With local sources