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REPORTS: LATIN AMERICA |
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Give Us This Day Our Daily Corruption
Diego Cevallos*
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) - To give a
”gratuity”, a ”kite”, or a ”diego” is
how small pay-offs are described in
Latin America. These small bribes, say
experts, are an everyday occurrence that
has become rooted in the region's
culture -- and violates a brand-new
United Nations convention.
Corruption is the ”daily bread” in many
Latin American countries, says Mexican
public administration expert Arturo del
Castillo.
With the exception of Chile, which
despite recent scandals involving
lawmakers and business executives
maintains its reputation of being the
least corrupt of Latin America and the
Caribbean, graft is seen as a serious
problem in the region.
However, there is no shortage of
government lip-service and plans and
strategies to eradicate it.
For its annual report on corruption and
other issues, Latinobarómetro, a
non-governmental polling firm based in
Chile, consulted 18,638 people in the
region, 80 percent of whom said that
corruption had increased over the past
year.
”Without corruption, nothing works. It
is something we carry in our blood,”
says 15-year-old Patrocinio Bruno, in
Mexico.
Venezuelan student Juan Caldeira says it
is an evil that will never go away.
And Brazilian Fabiola Slavestrini, a
recent graduate in biology, says that
”corruption is a part of the human
being.”
The United Nations Convention Against
Corruption, which will be open for
government signatures at a meeting on
the issue, Dec. 9-11 in Mexico City,
asserts that eradicating corruption is
indeed possible and that states must
work towards that goal -- and involve
non-public sectors, such as civil
society, in the effort.
Corruption undermines ”the institutions
and values of democracy, ethical values
and justice” and jeopardises
”sustainable development and the rule of
law,” states the document, which was
adopted Oct. 30 by the U.N. General
Assembly.
But the new U.N. treaty focuses on what
the world's governments and legislators
should do to tackle this illegal
practice in the spheres of the state and
of the business sector, while saying
nothing of the day-to-day phenomenon
which involves millions of people in
Latin America.
”Many will see the new convention as
something remote, because in general
they perceive corruption as part of
life,” says Del Castillo, an expert with
Mexico's Centre for Economic Research
and Education (CIDE).
Nevertheless, ”people are sure to be
pleased, and will change their attitudes
if this international instrument works,
and if it leads to the punishment of
white-collar corruption,” Del Castillo
told IPS.
According to the convention, ”corruption
is no longer a local matter but a
transnational phenomenon that affects
all societies and economies, making
international cooperation to prevent and
control it essential.”
In Argentina, the payment of a bribe to
an individual or an official is known as
'coima' (gratuity), 'peaje' (toll), 'retorno'
(exchange) or ”el diego” (a local slang
reference to 10 percent).
It is common practice among those who
sell cinema or theatre tickets in Buenos
Aires to reserve the best seats for
last, in order to offer them at the last
minute for higher prices.
In Mexico, bribes are known as 'mordidas'
(bites), and they are used extensively.
When one is dealing with the public
bureaucracy and is faced with an
employee who opens a small desk drawer,
one is expected to place money in it if
the formalities are to continue.
'Transparencia Mexicana', the local
chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency
International, says that in Mexico
around 214 million acts of corruption in
the public services sphere are recorded
each year.
Furthermore, the average Mexican
household spends 6.9 percent of its
income on these small acts of bribery.
Similar situations are repeated in other
Latin American countries.
In Brazil, for example, many taxpayers
will purchase medical bills in order to
justify a reduction in their taxes,
while in Venezuela, where the expression
”pay a toll” is synonymous with making a
pay-off, 20 dollars will obtain a
driver's license without anyone taking a
driving test.
In Paraguay, which Transparency
International's studies have pegged as
the most corrupt country in Latin
America, to convince a customs officer
to turn a blind eye and let a contraband
shipment pass, one would have to pay a 'cometa'
(kite).
Chile, which Transparency ranks as the
least corrupt country in the region, is
not free of this practice, though
apparently it occurs much less than in
neighbouring nations.
One area where little bribes are needed
is parking. When drivers park their cars
on the streets of Santiago, they must
”smooth the moustache”, in other words,
pay informal attendants to help find a
parking spot and to ”keep an eye on” the
car.
This is common to nearly all major
cities in Latin America, but in some the
car-parking assistants are regulated by
the municipal government.
Cuba, the only socialist-run country in
the region, is not exempt from
corruption. To go ”to the left” is
synonymous with bending the rules, or
obtaining some benefits outside of the
context of the law.
But there are also major cases of
corruption on the Caribbean island, such
as that committed by Luis Orlando
Domínguez, first secretary of the Union
of Communist Youths and member of
President Fidel Castro's official
coordination and support team.
Domínguez was arrested in 1987 on
charges of embezzlement, abuse of
authority, falsification of public
documents and undue use of financial and
material resources.
One of the most notorious cases in Cuba
ended with the application of the death
penalty. In 1989, four former
high-ranking military officers were
accused and convicted of
drug-trafficking and corruption crimes.
Among them was Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa, who
until then was a national hero.
Widespread corruption is not just a
regional stereotype. Examples of this
phenomenon in the governmental and
business arenas abound in Latin America.
In Paraguay, former president Luis
González Macchi faces trial for charges
of criminal association, breach of
trust, illicit enrichment and abuse of
power during his time in office, from
2000 to 2003.
In a survey conducted last year by the
local Information and Resources for
Development Centre, 86 percent of the
Paraguayans consulted said they felt
”overwhelmed” by government corruption.
Meanwhile, in Argentina it was fully
documented that in the 1990s IBM
corporation used bribes to obtain
contracts worth more than 700 million
dollars to set up computer systems for
the branch offices of the state-run
Banco de la Nación and for the national
tax administration.
Brazilian president Fernando Collor de
Mello was removed from office in 1992 as
a result of corruption scandals. Today,
the South American giant is dealing with
a case that involves judges and police
agents in the ”sale” of court sentences,
the falsification of legal documents,
money laundering and other serious
crimes.
Investigations continue in Mexico of the
state-run oil giant, Pemex, which
allegedly channelled funds through its
labour union to the electoral campaigns
of the Institutional Revolutionary
Party, which governed the country
uninterrupted for seven decades -- until
President Vicente Fox took office in
2000.
”Corruption is the grease that moves the
state machinery,” is a phrase coined by
Mexican experts on the matter.
The financial consortium Inverlink
stands accused in Chile of paying off
public functionaries and trafficking in
state bonds.
Chilean lawmakers are being investigated
for allegedly receiving kickbacks from
business executives in return for
helping them win government concessions
for carrying out automobile inspections.
”Corruption is the 'daily bread' in many
Latin American countries, but also in
developed countries, which should be
ashamed for having tried on numerous
occasions to give us lessons in
transparency and rectitude,” commented
CIDE expert Del Castillo.
One recent example is the case of the
multinational energy trading company
Enron. According to figures released in
May by the U.S. Treasury Department,
Enron got the U.S. government to
pressure developing nations into
granting the company concessions and to
resolve its investment problems in those
countries.
Enron, which went bankrupt in late 2001
amidst an enormous financial scandal,
regularly and aggressively pressed
officials from the Treasury, the State
Department and the Office of the Trade
Representative to meet with delegates
from foreign governments and from the
World Bank to resolve disputes in the
corporation's favour.
Enron avoided paying taxes in four of
the five years prior to its bankruptcy
despite seeing annual revenues of
billions of dollars. When the
corporation went under, it had a
multi-million-dollar debt and faced a
long list of charges related to
accounting fraud.
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