A Legacy of Corruption

I think corruption is probably the most challenging task facing Argentina and also South America in general.

Corruption in Argentina has been a long-standing problem that has plagued not only every level of government but also in the private sector. Despite institutional and legal framework that is suppose to prevent such corruption, bribery and payoffs are seen as a part of everyday life in Argentina.

The amount of scandals that have plagued Argentina regarding corruption in the past 10 years are overwhelming. These includes cases about the Mayor of Buenos Ares and an SEC case from Ralph Lauren that claims the company had to bribe Argentinean custom officials to get their merchandise through despite the proper paperwork.

It is very difficult to find a sector of Argentina that isn’t afflicted by corruption. I’ve found reports of corruption on banking, media, pharmaceuticals and judicial process. Currently, there are many rumors of voting fraud as the presidential election approaches.

Climate survey about corruption from Argentineans 

There is a bureau in Buenos Ares that is an anti-corruption force. However, despite the large amount of investigations launched by the bureau, they rarely get actual convictions from their investigations. Perhaps this speaks to how systemic corruption is that even the anti-corruption bureau can’t get a lot of convictions and how this bureau may even be corrupt itself.  

To put this all into perspective, Argentina ranks 106 out of 177 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Report in 2013. However, it ranked 11^th out of 20 countries in Latin America. So while Argentina is pretty bad with corruption in general, it’s not the worst or even super close to the worst in Latin America. I think this shows that while corruption in Argentina is bad, corruption in Lain/South America is even worse.

Many factors contribute to why South America remains tocorrupt. Many experts point to organized crime and widespread drug trafficking, While organized crime is a huge part of corruption in South America, history also plays a role in the systemic corruption in these countries. Many of these countries have strong histories of corruption and powerful political oligarchies. 

Map of transparency ratings from Transparency International 

So fixing this problem might not be as easy as just eliminating organized crime because corruption is so engrained into the cultural in both South America and in Argentina. I think that as South American and Argentina continue to develop, there is a chance that corruption begins to decrease because the countries become more stable and citizens are more likely to protest such problems.

Anti-corruption protest in Argentina 

Poverty in Peru

Peru is a country with many natural resources and rich culture, but struggles with a major problem of poverty.  Poverty is frequent to South America and other parts of the world.  This task of finding an end to poverty has been on the minds of many humanitarians for years.  However, the task is too large to take on alone.

Poverty is an issue that encompasses all globalization topics we’ve discussed from human rights to environment.  Hunger and poverty aid is the driving fore of many NGOs and humanitarian organizations.  Poverty in Peru is generally a rural problem.  Many farmers and people who live out of the cities most commonly deal with poverty.  The rural poverty rate is over 50 percent.  

According to Rural Poverty inPeru the contributors to poverty are as follows:

§  High rates of illiteracy, particularly among women

§  Lack of essential services, such as education and electrical power

§  Insecure rights to land, forests and water

§  Inadequate agricultural research, training and financial services

§  Ineffective animal and plant health services

§  Poor transportation infrastructure and marketing systems

§  Lack of well-defined territorial organization and planning.

In a country with poor natural surroundings to live off of, poverty is higher.  According to How to Peru,  “Water quality in Lima and Peru is a huge issue, not just for tourists and backpackers, but for the health of the country in general…”.  If farmers and the poor cannot obtain a means to boil the toxins out of the water survival is rare.  The reason there are so many pollutants in the drinking water is because of the Rio Rimac.  “The source for Lima’s water is the Rio Rimac, one of the world’s most polluted rivers. The tributaries that feed the Rimac are full of runoff from mining operations, so the water that comes out of the tap in Lima is very high in heavy metals, and you can’t remove those with filters or with the treatment methods that SEDAPAL uses in its plant in Lima. Those heavy metals are a huge hazard for anyone who drinks the water.”  A solution to remove pollutants in water would be the huge step Peru needs to end suffering.

Peru, like other countries, has countless groups working towards an end to hunger.  The globalization of poverty is seen through the vast amounts of people all around the world suffering.  This issue is so sad, but with the help of NGOs and other aid there is hope for an end.

25 Years Later: Moving Forward From the Pinochet Regime

What is your country’s and region’s most challenging task in the 21^st century?

Augusto Pinochet (theredphoenixapl.org)

  The biggest ongoing issue for Chile in recent years has been the Pinochet regime and its subsequent government corruption. Essentially it was a dictatorship, established in 1973 shortly after President Salvador Allende was overthrown by the CIA (headed by General Augusto Pinochet). The takeover was initially supposed to be to more or less "save" the state of the government at the time, which under President Allende had fallen into an economic crisis and a "perceived breakdown of democracy." However, it quickly turned dark, with the "national reconstruction" of Chile turning instead systematic suppression of political parties. with those who objected being subject to death. Massacres ensued, and by the end of Pinochet's rule, over 3,000 Chileans were killed or went missing, and 200,000 more were sent into exile. 

  During this rule, drastic changes were made to the government - changes that are still affecting the way it functions today. In 1980, members of the regime crafted a new constitution that replaced the original Constitution of 1925. Even after the official end of the era around 1990, "...the regime took great care to secure the political and economic system it had created would remain unmodified. The regime also arranged for the military to be out of civilian control after the end of dictatorship." (wikipedia)

The official referendum proposal for the Chilean Constitution, 1980 (wikipedia)

   Needless to say, the consequences of the Pinochet administration are still felt today. Although Chile is officially considered a democratic country today, infra-structurally speaking there are still many things that need to be reverted back to normal, or otherwise revised. The Pinochet trials didn't even end until 2005, so the aftermath of the authoritarian stint is still heavily influential. Even with the government now being in the right hands, changes to an entire economy, culture, and political climate will take years to effectively implement - and even longer to see changes. 

   

Corruption Scandals

A scene from The Simpsons episode "Blame it on Lisa." The family travels to Brazil and Homer gets kidnapped from an illegal taxi operation.  Photo from: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/8/83/Kidnap-simpsons.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131216210348

               Corruption is nothing new in Brazil.  Almost every time you see Brazil in the news, it is either an update on a corruption scandal, or they just discovered a brand new corruption scandal.

The corruption is bad enough, it actually was featured in two episodes of The Simpsons. (https://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/301665347899 and https://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/304489539783). Now The Simpsons is a fictional show, but it is based on events that actually do happen.

In 2014, Brazil actually passed a new law called the Clean Company Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Brazil). This act holds companies responsible for their employee’s actions. But still, corruption is a major problem in Brazil.

In my most recent post, I shine the spotlight on the Brazillian Red Cross. (http://globalatmusa.blogspot.com/2015/10/another-scandal-in-brazil.html). Private auditors found this charity in the midst of $10 million embezzlement scandal.

In my first post, I talk about the economic situation in Brazil. (http://globalatmusa.blogspot.com/2015/09/brazil-is-officially-in-recession.html) One of the major contributors to the recession is the corruption scandal of their largest company, Petrobras, which is Latin America’s largest oil company.

Corruption is a real problem affecting real people. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/business/international/effects-of-petrobras-scandal-leave-brazilians-lamenting-a-lost-dream.html) The investigation of Petrobras is hauling operations leaving Brazilian’s without work during a recession. Meanwhile, the executives are rolling in the dough with more money than they possibly know how to spend, other than to bribe officials. This obviously angers citizens nationwide, so they are out on the streets protesting. Then, whenever one of their big shots is arrested, they hold major celebrations.

Corruption is a major cause of the current recession they are facing. It is having real effects on the economy. Their economic ratings have been plummeting due to the recent scandals. (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/17/brazils-corruption-scandal-economy-drive-rousseffs-ratings-to-record-low/)

Another scandal that hit the headlines was over the FIFA World cup. Soccer (as they call it Football) is probably as big is American Football is in the United States. Con artists were all over this event bribing officials this rigging the games. (http://www.espnfc.us/blog/espn-fc-united-blog/68/post/2486642/world-cup-a-year-on-going-back-to-brazil) That second episode of The Simpsons I mentioned makes fun of that situation. The thing is, that is a real situation, and it is no laughing matter.

Brazil has a horrible reputation when it comes to corruption.  People are rapidly losing trust in Brazil. People should be very careful when doing any business in Brazil, because there is likely a scam artist trying to interfere with the action. People in Brazil need to work with their government to improve transparency, create and fairly enforce new laws to clean their act up. Before anything can get better in Brazil, officials need to clean up their act.

Brandon Fredman