5 corruption scandals that shocked Latin America
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December 9 is the international day of the fight against corruption, these are some of the biggest scandals in Latin America
Regarding the international day of fight against corruption, and the election of Colombia as the venue for the Anti-Corruption Summit 2019 (despite being one of the worst positioned countries in the world in the perception of corruption) we show some of the largest scandals in Latin America in its recent history.
Leer en español: Estos son los principales escándalos de corrupción en América Latina
According to a Transparency International report on the perception of corruption in the world, Latin America is, in general, in the worst positions. Countries like Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Ecuador are the ones with the worst score. The biggest corruption scandal according to the report is Odebrecht, which involves 12 countries, of which 10 are from the Americas.
1. Mexico – Enrique Peña Nieto's scandals
The former president of Mexico has repeatedly been the focus of attention for his corruption scandals. One of the first traits of corruption was in 2014 when a journalistic investigation brought to light a property, which they titled "The White House", which the ex-president's wife bought. This house was valued at USD 7 million. Being in her name, I did not have to make it public, because she is not a government official. However, this caused such a stir that the purchase ended up being canceled.
In the same way, many of its officials were involved. The then Minister of Finance was found a property valued at USD 500,000. Several of its governors were arrested or are in the process of extradition.
This led to a negative perception of the government and was one of the factors that led Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the new president, to be elected thanks to his anti-corruption discourse.
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2. Ecuador – The scandals of Rafael Correa
Rafael Correa, who was president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, is currently under investigation for alleged embezzlement and irregularities in an anticipated sale of oil to China and Thailand during his rule. In addition, in 2017, an investigation by journalist Fernando Villavicencio revealed that in Ecuador there was no due process of tender, especially in the oil sector, but that the large works were contracted directly by the authorities. This, without also counting that several of its officials are fugitives or being investigated.
After the election of the current president Lenin Moreno, who was initially his candidate and are now opponents, Correa said he wanted to launch again for the presidency for the next period, in 2021. However, in February 2018 a popular referendum was approved which prevents anyone with corruption investigations from holding any public office.
3. Panama Papers
In 2016, an investigation was revealed that 370 journalists from all over the world had been preparing for a year. This scandal found the largest leak of documents in history, from a law firm in Panama, called Mossack Fonseca. These documents show how the company helped hide heritage in tax havens to evade taxes.
This investigation revealed more than 11 million documents and involves 200,000 companies and 72 presidents from around the world, including the current president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri. Although having ghost accounts is not illegal, in this case, the legal requirements to do them correctly were not taken IGNORE INTO account.
4. Brazil – Petrobras
In 2013, a case of corruption began to be investigated with the public-private company Petrobras, with which a washing network was uncovered in the main cities of the country. The testimonies of two detainees, Alberto Youssef, and Paulo Roberto Costa, unleashed a larger network than imagined, giving rise to the so-called Operation Lato Java. Which, in 2014, captured 24 people.
During the investigation, they found that the company had diverted public funds, irregularities in contracts and payment of bribes. Currently, the operation has more than 150 orders for preventive or temporary detention.
5. Odebrecht
Odebrecht, the biggest corruption scandal in Latin America currently, part of Operation Java Lato, when they realized that there were more works in Latin America that presented irregularities. The scandal, although it started as part of the Petrobras washing network, ended up becoming one of its own, thanks to the magnitude of the bribes and the worldwide deployment.
As confirmed by the Odebrecht company, bribes between 2001 and 2016 reached 788 million dollars for politicians, parties and other intermediaries in countries of Latin America and Mozambique and Angola, former Portuguese colonies.
In addition to these examples, the presidents in Latin America, as well as Enrique Peña Nieto and Rafael Correa, have been involved in corruption cases. For example, Luiz Ignazio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Dilma Rousseff (Brazil) for Operation Lava Jato, Pablo Kuczynski (Peru), investigated for laundering of State assets, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina) for receiving bribes, among others.
LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Suárez
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