Uruguay and Venezuela: the two extremes in the ranking of the fight against corruption in Latin America

The Americas Society / Council of the Americas (AS / COA) and Control Risks, the global risk consultancy, have launched, for the third year in a row, their ranking of Ability to Combat Corruption (CCC) to assess the capacity of Latin American countries to uncover, punish and stop corruption.

While the report praises first place in Uruguay “for its legislation on campaign finance, legislative and governmental processes, and the general quality of democracy”, although he stresses that “anti-money laundering policies continue to be a challenge” for the country ruled by Luis Lavalle Pou.

In exchange, puts Venezuela on the other extreme due to “a constant decline in its legal capacity since 2019, with particularly low scores in terms of judicial independence, anti-corruption agencies and investigators ”.

In the statement released today, the aforementioned AS / COA Vice President of Policy Brian Winger noted that this The ranking reveals that “efforts to fight corruption are needed more in 2021 than ever”.

“Latin America has been among the regions most affected by the pandemic,” said the official, while noting that “With governments under increasing financial pressure and health systems in many countries severely affected, the pernicious effects of corruption on society are magnified. “

The ranking covers 15 Latin American countries, which account for almost 95% of the region’s GDP, and assesses and ranks them according to their effectiveness in fighting corruption, with which those with the highest scores are considered more likely to see corrupt actors prosecuted and punished. .

Among the most striking results of this year, Uruguay is the country with the highest score (7.80 / 10), followed by Chile (6.51), Costa Rica (6.45), Peru (5.66), Argentina (5.16), Brazil (5.07). , Colombia (4.81), Ecuador (-4 77), Panama (4.55), Dominican Republic (4.38), Mexico (4.25), Paraguay (4.08), Guatemala (3.84) , Bolivia (2.43) and Venezuela (1.40).

The CCC index detects that 5 of the 15 countries assessed recorded significant drops in their scores; 7 remained unchanged and three increased markedly and finds that the two largest countries and economies in Latin America, Brazil and Mexico, suffered some of the largest declines.

Brazil, which fell from fourth to sixth place, recorded an 11% drop in the category of democracy and political institutions, where the state of relations between the executive and the legislature was a key factor, according to this report.

As for Mexico, its score fell by 7% in 2021, from eighth to eleventh place, and, in this case, variables such as those measuring the independence of the attorney general’s office and anti-corruption agencies weighed in.

On the other hand, the Dominican Republic was one of the most improved, from 13 to 10, while significant progress was made in the category of legal capacity, “reflecting an anti-corruption campaign by President Luis Abinader”, according to the document.

Uruguay, Chile and Costa Rica reflected stability in this edition due to the quality of democracy and the strength of their political institutions, as in Peru, despite the political turmoil of late 2020 in the latter country.

For its part, the report emphasizes that Panama and Ecuador saw dramatic improvements in their legal capacity as perceived increases in the politicization of anti-corruption institutions lowered the scores of Argentina and Colombia.

The CCC index pointed out that Guatemala, which fell from 11 to 13, has fallen 5% this year and 16% since 2019, while Venezuela remains in the lowest position.

In the aforementioned note, Geert Albers, partner at Control Risks, considers that the ranking reveals “uneven and increasingly politicized anti-corruption efforts in many Latin American countries”, thus highlighting “the need for companies to update their risk assessments and to recalibrate and strengthen their conformity”.

To develop the index, 14 key variables were analyzed, such as the independence of judicial institutions, the strength of investigative journalism and the level of resources available to fight white-collar crime.

(with information from the EFE)

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