In the context of the massive investigation that may end decimating the Brazilian political elite, Judge Sérgio Moro initiated a new judicial process against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
What started out as a relatively calm student protest in Venezuela on the afternoon of February 12th turned into a day of grieving for three Venezuelan families whose loved ones perished in an effort to affect change in light of the continuous corruption that marks the fabric of the country. This march was the most recent in a series of manifestations rallying against the ineffective economic policies of President Nicolás Maduro.
La justicia guatemalteca vive uno de los momentos más críticos para su independencia, a pesar de que existe una ley de comisiones de postulación para seleccionar a magistrados de la Corte Suprema de Justicia y de salas de apelaciones, entre otros. La justicia se tambalea porque el oficialista Partido Patriota y el principal partido de oposición (LIDER) se unieron para decidir quiénes serán los encargados de impartir justicia en los próximos cinco años.1
Brokers are neighborhood party operatives that gather political support for their bosses in poor areas, and networks of brokers are a key element for political machines to compete in the political arena. The Daley machine in Chicago, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico, and the Nationalist Party (KMT) in Taiwan, for example, have all developed extensive networks of brokers to permeate poor areas.
El 11 febrero de 2014, en medio de la polémica generada por las llamadas “reformas estructurales” que el presidente Enrique Peña Nieto estaba impulsando, el senado mexicano aprobó la Ley Antiterrorista en una votación apresurada, de esas que suelen denominar fast track.
Last week reporter Carmen Aristegui of the Mexican news station MVS was released from her position with the company. Aristegui is known for her reports on governmental corruption and is regard as one of the top reporters in Mexico. The firing comes several months after the reporter aired a report accusing President Nieto and his wife of corruption. Aristegui believes her firing was backed by the president and has announced that she will appeal her removal from MVS.
As a political and social disease, public corruption costs governments and businesses around the world trillions of dollars every year. Government Anti-Corruption Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Perspective provides a better understanding of public corruption and governments’ anti-corruption practices. It outlines a general framework of anti-corruption strategies that governments undertake to effectively curb corrupt practices.
This past April the UN International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) released a report that exposed a network of Guatemalan officials and individuals involved in a $15 million USD embezzlement scheme. The announcement immediately generated widespread public outrage, which led tens of thousands of Guatemalans to peacefully protest an end to government corruption.
Police performance is vital in consolidated democracies, but even more so in post-transition countries where public support for the regime is not yet firmly established. In many Latin American countries, as Mark Ungar and others have pointed out, law enforcement institutions had to be reformed not only to improve the capacity of the emerging democratic states but, more importantly, to prevent a return to the oppressive practices of the authoritarian past (Ungar 2011).
