Gustavo Coronel: A conversation with the president of Transparency International, José Ugaz

A few days ago I attended an event of the interAmerican Dialogue in which the president of Transparency International, José Ugaz held a conversation with Michael Shifter. The event was titled: “Harnessing the anti-corruption wave in Latin America”. It was very well attended and ably conducted by Shifter. I was very impressed by Mr. Ugaz, who seemed to be very much up to date on the topic of corruption in our region. Ugaz gave us a panoramic view of corruption in Latin America, including the following, as I remember:

·       There is an old corruption and a new corruption. The old corruption mostly had to do with families and individuals. The new corruption has much to do with political, transnational gangs.

·       There are different types of corruption: historical, systemic, public-private alliances. Ugaz mentioned the cases of Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, even Colombia. Several of these cases connected Peruvian former presidents to the Brazilian company Odebrecht. Ugaz mentioned how Presidents Humala and Toledo were accused of receiving money from Odebrecht and also mentioned the name of Alan Garcia as suspected of corruption. I was glad to see that Ugaz did not hesitate in naming names, because corruption remains an abstract, empty word if it is not connected with the names of the corrupt.

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