Chile and Uruguay are the leaders in transparency in Latin America, while Venezuela and Paraguay are perceived as the most corrupt, according to a report released today by the German organization Transparency International (TI).
In the 2011 edition of its traditional Index of Corruption Perception (CPI), only three of the twenty Latin American countries in the area approved in perceived transparency of its public sector. “Chile marks the line and the rest of Latin America followed slowly. This is a compliment to Chile, but also a recommendation for the imposition of higher barriers,” he said in remarks to Efe director for the Americas IT, Alejandro Salas.

In his view, most Latin American countries that score low on the table suffer from a “weak institutions” where the government or major political actor – “regardless of whether the left or right” – is “very strong”, so “There is no balance of power.” On a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very transparent), Chile (7.2) ranked 22 out of 183 countries surveyed, Uruguay (7.9) 25 and Puerto Rico (5.6) for 39 while Nicaragua (2.5), Paraguay (2.2) and Venezuela (1.9) occupied caboose at positions 134, 154 and 172, respectively.
Approved were positioned close to Costa Rica (4.8) and Cuba (4.2), followed by Brazil (3.8), ahead of China,, Colombia (3.4), El Salvador (3.4), Peru (3.4) and Panama (3.3).
Argentina and Mexico are at 3.0 on the level of ten-Malawi and Indonesia, and then placed in the ranking achieved Bolivia (2.8), Ecuador (2.7), Guatemala (2.7), Republic Dominican (2.6) and Honduras (2.6).
Compared to last year, most Latin American countries analyzed showed minor variations, with positive exceptions of Cuba and El Salvador, which recorded increases of substance, and the decline of Costa Rica.
Cuba goes back eight positions and five-tenths of the post 69 to 61 and 3.7 to 4.2 points, El Salvador jumps 47 positions and nine tenths with respect to IT report 2010, and Costa Rica gives, for his Meanwhile, five tenths and nine positions.
Salas believes that the reforms of Cuban President Raul Castro, have helped the perception of their country, the head of the Salvadoran state, Mauricio Funes, is working towards greater transparency at national and regional levels and that the image of Costa Rica has been affected by scandals of recent years and have started to be part of “the route of drug trafficking.”
Globally, Somalia (1.0), North Korea (1.0) and Myanmar (Burma) (1.5) are the most corrupt countries according to the CPI, and New Zealand (9.5), Denmark (9 , 4) and Finland (9.4) the least hit by this type of practice.
In comparison, Spain (6.2) was in the thirty-first position, with little variations from the previous year’s study.
IT global benchmark analysis of transparency, warns in its report that only 49 of the 183 countries studied the exam, even though the citizen outcry against these practices has gained momentum worldwide.
“This year we have seen complaints against the manifestations of corruption in rich and poor. Both in the European debt crisis and in the Arab world, leaders must address the demands for better government,” he said in a statement IT Chair, Huguette Labelle.
TI says in his report that the protests around the world, “fueled by corruption and political instability”, “clearly show that citizens feel that their leaders and public institutions are not sufficiently transparent or accountable.”
The CPI is produced each year since 1995 from various studies and surveys on perceived levels of corruption in the public sector in different countries.
Members of the Venezuelan National Guard cut road access to the vicinity of El Rodeo II jail. Reuters / File