Corruption Latin America

The corruption in the government, one of the main problems in the majority of countries in the world, causing death, poverty and impunity in the life of the persons. People think that government corruption is just buying votes to win the elections, but this is just a little part of the corruption. The corruption of the government has been present for a long time ago, covering a great variety of problems in the society, like the stealing the money from the people, alliances with the narco, using the power just a favor of the politicians, increasing the prices of food, fuel and public services just to make more money. The people do not have the necessary services to survive and if the services are available they are expensive. In some parts of the world the government is colluding with the delinquency, in the case of Mexico, the government is colluded with the narco. The corruption in Mexico has permeated several segments of society like political, economic, and social. Also it has greatly affected the country’s legitimacy, transparency, accountability, and effectiveness; knowing the majority of the people of

1. List all the different types of bribes, payments, or favors represented in this case under (a) FCPA, (b) Criminal Law of PRC, and (c) Law against Unfair Competition of the PRC. Why is each either legal or illegal?

The Progress movement or as many refer to as the Progressive era, was a time frame where Americans joined in varying groups to advocate reform across the United States. To elaborate, Progressives believed in widespread change for child labor, industrialization, government, racial reform, and women’s rights. Countless stories of corruption in these areas were brought to light in the Progressive era mostly due to the published writings of Muckrakers. Muckrakers, were journalists who wrote for popular magazines that attempted to expose corrupt political activities from their investigative journalism. Furthermore, I will discuss and compare these groups and their attempts for changes in the rights of child labor, women, acknowledgment of corrupt government practices, racial relations, and industrialization reform.

Like many countries in turmoil, corruption is and has been a big part of Mexico’s political scene, especially with domestic criminal organizations such as the drug cartels. Mexico’s politicians have not only stolen public funds but they have also made complicit agreements with multiple drug cartels. “Mexico ranks No. 123 in Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perception Index, 25 spots lower than the year before. Analysts say it's unclear whether corruption has gotten worse or has merely become more visible because of transparency laws, journalists increasingly uncovering graft and social media exposing politicians’ excesses” (Agren, 2017). In recent years there have been multiple Mexican politicians prosecuted and arrested due to their illegal dealings but the cycle just continues with their successors. Take Javier Duarte for example, who was the governor of Veracruz State from 2010 to 2016 and managed to steal $3 billion from public funds meanwhile violence spread throughout the state. The violence was so severe that mass graves with 250 skulls were discovered and at least 17 journalists were murdered during his tenure (Agren, 2017). Additionally, the two former Tamaulipas State governors were both indicted for their involvement in illicit activities. The former governor, Tomás Yarrington, was accused of taking bribes from both the Zetas Cartel and the Gulf Cartel; meanwhile in 2015 his successor, Eugenio Hernández, was indicted in Texas on federal money laundering charges (Agren, 2017).

Latin America is a continent that is constantly struggling between governmental abuse and oppression of its citizens. In Latin America, it is very common for non –democratic systems to be enforced. During recent years, the continent has experienced a governmental shift from an absolute to a more democratic system. This era is called the democratic third wave, which brought about democratic like tendencies to Latin America. Many factors such as corruption, poverty, and inequality pushed the people to favor this new democratic system. The abuse of power is also very common, and the citizen’s unrest is highly noted. Most citizens are in favor of doing away with the old system of government, and establishing a new efficient political system.

“The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft’ interred with their bones”. The evil that one decides to do will be on their own conscious although it will still affect the people around them.

In the American version of a democratic system, a handful of extremely wealthy individuals and large corporations control the political system. By "funding" or bribing the candidates, they directly influence the election and nominations of presidents, governors, senators and congress members. The money is used for campaign staff, door to door voting operations, and television advertising. The continued influence of the wealthy violates the basic principle of democratic political equality.This cynical political campaign has become part of the democratic system that the politicians are not even required to justify their action. Even though a truly democratic system is too perfect to exist, a corrupted political system destroys the hope for a system that has the public's interest in mind.

Living in America people learn to live amongst some of the most corrupt human-being known to humankind. Anyone can be corrupt, weather he or she is a corrupt cook working for Burger King stealing money from the cash register to pay bills, or a corrupt politician who votes to raise his or her earnings while committing white-collar crimes against the American public. Theodore Roosevelt could not have been more precise when he said, “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.” Corruption has been around for some time in America, and the government has struggled to void this type of behavior when it comes to politicians. The government’s use of the FBI for investigations, the media

During the 19th and 20th century, the split between Liberal and Conservative parties had caused trouble in Colombia. The Conservative party of Colombia beliefs were that the state and church (preferably Catholic churches) should work together in government, land ownership should be preserved, and central government should be in control of electing government officials. Liberals beliefs were that the church and state should be separate and central government should have restrictions on power.

During the 20th century Latin America went through a change after the U.S made the clam to directly defend Latin America. This caused a sudden trade switch from the Europe nation to the U.S. With this trade switch we start to see a big gap between the lower and upper class. With this gap the poor gets poorer and the rich become Carlos Slim. Carlos Slim was the world’s richest person form 2010-2013 and is a perfect example on how the upper class becomes billionaires. The wealth Disparity can also be seen in area like Sao Paulo, Brazil with their slums. With this wage gap crime started to flourish in Latin amerce along with corruption. Some of the best example of crime and corruption are the Colombian drug cartels with their wide spread murder and bribery tactics.

According to James Painter in his BBC News article “Latin America faces year of change”, Latin America suffers from social violence, kidnapping, drug trafficking, child pornography, lack of women’s rights, and little accountability over the region’s law makers and authorities which can lead to government corruption (para. 12). Government corruption can be defined as political power used by government leaders for private gain and to maintain their power as a government official. Most of the times these corrupt politicians in Latin America say they are accomplishing apprehension of criminals to the best of their abilities when, in reality, they commit the same multitude of crimes. Politicians are able to maintain their power as a result of

"There is systemic corruption in Latin America.” Corruption is rooted in the psyche of the South American population, which affects the length of their democratic processes, making it easier and shorter to bribe rather than commit to broken processes. Moreover, corruption affects the highest levels of government. In order to face this problem, “Latin America has made significant progress in combating poverty and inequality.” The economic development of states in Latin America allows them to benefit from the international trade but it is not enough to maintain economic stability within states. Deviant globalization creates an opportunity for transnational criminal organizations to benefit from different activities like drug trafficking, human trafficking. The Western Hemisphere presents different problems unlike other regions of the world. Mainly Latin America is affected by problems of corruption and drug trafficking. Weak states are the biggest challenge in Western Hemisphere, because corruption in Latin America is one of the factor that creates lack of rule of law. In addition, a weak economy and absence of adequate law enforcement creates a safe haven for transnational criminal organization. Moreover, the region presents serious problems in the quality of democracy regarding human rights, as well as illegal immigration. Globalization both affects weak states positively and negatively. To respond to this challenge, states must cooperate to economically

Ahmad N. (2002). Corruption and Government Regulations : An Empirical Analysis. The Bangladesh Development Studies , Vol. 28, No. 4 pp. 29-51.

Political corruption has existed throughout the ages. It believed to be most prominent in positions of power, because of the role money plays in getting people power. However, over the centuries, corruption has changed so much so as to not match a particular definition of corruption, perpetually growing deceptively harder to find (Ebbe).

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.