Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Cuba all hit record lows because of growing organized crime by government institutions, elite co-optation in politics and business, and heightened human rights violations, according to Transparency International's corruption index, which was issued on Tuesday.
Delia Ferreira Rubio, head of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption group said, "Weak governments fail to stop criminal networks, social conflict, and violence, and some exacerbate threats to human rights by concentrating power in the name of tackling insecurity."
On a scale from zero (extremely corrupt) to one hundred (very clean), Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index evaluates nations according to their perceived levels of public sector corruption. 43 is the average across the Americas.
According to the study, Nicaragua and Venezuela are the two countries with the worst rankings in Latin America since both countries suffer from corrupt governmental institutions.
The governments of Guatemala, Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and Peru did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the report, reports National Post.
According to the research, organized crime, and political, and economic elites have taken control of governmental institutions in Guatemala.
Alejandro Giammattei, the president of Guatemala, has come under fire from an increasing number of people who allege he has stifled attempts to combat corruption and driven certain judges and prosecutors out of the country, which are the major causes of the country's drop in the index.
While Cuba has a historically low ranking due to "ongoing repression" and the "complete lack of any kind of freedom in the country," one of Transparency International's researchers told Reuters that Nicaragua's ranking was affected by repression of the political opposition, violations of human rights, and restrictions on freedom of speech.
In Brazil, where former President Jair Bolsonaro's term was marked by the dismantling of anti-corruption efforts, the use of corrupt schemes to favor allies and amass support in Congress, as well as the promotion of disinformation, the report adds that the combination of corruption, authoritarianism, and an economic downturn proved "especially volatile."
Uruguay scored best in the region with a ranking of 74, the same as Canada.
The dismissal of Pedro Castillo, the country's former president and a subject of corruption probes, in December, was only one example of Peru's years of political instability, according to Transparency International.
"The only way forward is for leaders to prioritize decisive action against corruption to uproot its hold and enable governments to fulfill their first mandate: protecting the people," Delia Ferreira Rubio said.
Drug cartel expansion in the Caribbean has also been facilitated by weak law enforcement and widespread corruption, according to the research.
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