Corruption has been a problem in the Americas for centuries. However, something truly different and positive is happening in the region recently. As per American Quarterly Magazine (AQ), the latest issue of the magazine and the leading publication on politics, business, and culture in Latin America, spotlights how a new generation of prosecutors and activists is making historic progress in the ballet against graft, and jailing those responsible, no matter how powerful they are.
AQ has identified Latin American’s Top Five Corruption Busters and written profiles of them, telling their stories of persistence, skill, and bravery in the face of great personal risk. From Brazil to Guatemala and beyond; a new generation of prosecutors, judges and activists is making an extraordinary progress. They came from countries that have suffering a lot of corruption system from decades. Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru; and within their prosecutors are an activist and a Judge.
No other publication has explored in such detail how the anti-corruption trend is sweeping much of the region, and what its consequences will be. Americas Quarterly says Latin America’s Top Five Corruption Busters are:
Sergio Moro, the young Brazilian judge pried the lid off a far-reaching graft scheme that had siphoned more than $3 billion from the state-run oil firm into the wallets of high-profile officials and political parties. Moro was a federal judge at the helm of the “Lava Jato” until persecuting a massive graft scheme at state oil company Petrobas.
Ivan Velasquez, a Colombian prosecutor and the head of the international Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), tasked with rooting out corruption at the highest levels of government. His name shows up in graffiti all over Guatemala City “Thank you Ivan.” After all, Velasquez said “Fear is not an element present in my analysis” continues “I don’t think about the risk.”
Thelma Aldana, the Guatemalan attorney general who helped drives the prosecution that resulted in the resignation and imprisonment of Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina.
José Ugaz, the Peruvian jurist who led corruption investigations of former president Alberto Fujimori is now shaking things up as the global char or Transparency international. “He knows how to make sure people go to jail.”
Viridiana Rios, Mexican activist and academic, formerly of the activist watchdog group “Mexico Cómo vamos? (How are we doing Mexico?), which helped pave the way for Congress to pass a sweeping anti-corruption law.
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