On Sunday, in the Guatemalan presidential election, a candidate named Bernardo Arevalo ran on an anti-corruption platform. According to an article in the New York Times, Arevalo, the leader of the Movimento Semilla (Seed Movement), is a sociologist and won 58 percent of the vote. In comparison, his opponent Sandra Torres received 37 percent. Despite being a democracy, Guatemala has been plagued by political scandals and societal corruption for years. According to another piece in The Times 2019, Guatemala had a pioneering anti-corruption body backed by the UN called the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, which was shut down due to the efforts of high-ranking officials such as businessmen and politicians who were charged with corruption, but still had enough institutional power prevent prosecutors and other officials favorable to anti-corruption steps from staying in office. Despite the current positivity in Guatemala, an article from the AP suggests that corrupt judges and government officials could try and stop the certification, thus throwing the country back into turmoil. It would be a massive boost for Latin America and the USA if Arevalo could take power and stop the endemic corruption that plagues Latin America.
Category: Civil Society
Ecuador Anti-Corruption Presidential Candidate Assassinated.
Last week Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated while leaving a campaign event in Quito. According to a report by Reuters, Villavicencio was formerly an investigative journalist who focused on exposing corruption and stated that he was not afraid of being targeted by criminal gangs. Violence against politicians in Ecuador is not new. According to a report by the AP from July 23rd, the mayor of Manta, Ecuador’s third largest city, Agustin Intriago, was assassinated by what authorities believe to be organized crime elements.
According to an article by El Pais, both Mexican and Colombian drug cartels have made inroads into Ecuadorian society and have been trafficking drugs, as well as conducting other criminal enterprises. The killing of Villavicencio is concerning for two reasons. First, it hindered ongoing anti-corruption efforts, scaring people into silence and emboldening transnational criminal organizations. Secondly, it adds to the overall feeling of political and social instability in Ecuador.
Ukrainian Military Officers Fired Over Bribery Allegations.
Last Week President Zelenskyy fired officials who led Ukraine’s military recruitment drive over bribery allegations. Under Zelenskyy’s leadership, Ukraine has started to crack down on corruption, partially to improve its prospects of joining the EU and NATO. According to a BBC article, Zelenskyy announced that 30 people would face bribery allegations, including all the regional heads of the military conscription effort. The charges allege that these officials took bribes in cash and cryptocurrency and aided non-disabled men to leave the country. Current Ukrainian law states that all men over 18 able to fight up to 60 can be conscripted. It is admirable to see Zelenskyy clamp down on corruption after years of unchecked greed by other Ukrainian leaders.
A follow-up on Navalny.
Last week Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a Russian prison camp on extremism charges. According to ABC, Navalny is already in prison on other charges that are politically driven. These charges are related to Navalny’s efforts to expose endemic corruption in the Russian state. According to VOAnews, Russian prosecutors asked for a 20-year sentence. It is abundantly clear that Navalny will never get out of prison and that the Putin regime doesn’t want him to give any opportunities to fuel protests that could bring down Putin.
Trump Indicted on January 6th Charges.
On Tuesday, Former President Donald Trump was indicted concerning his actions around January 6th, 2021. He faces charges of defrauding the U.S. government, two counts of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The first charge details how Trump and his unindicted co-conspirators attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election by illegal means. The two counts of obstruction relate to Trump’s effort to impede the vote certification process of 2020 and his subsequent efforts to curb the certification investigation. The final charge relates to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results in states that were close.
This indictment has numerous ramifications for Trump and his cronies. According to an article in the New York Times, close allies such as Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell were central to Trump’s plans. While they are (for now) unindicted co-conspirators, they will likely be expected to testify during any trial, and it is also possible that they will face legal jeopardy of their own. On top of all this is the ongoing legal jeopardy that Trump faces in New York and Florida and possible legal issues in Georgia regarding his efforts to overturn the count there. Despite these issues, Trump still has a commanding lead in the race for the Republican nomination. The million-dollar question is at what point (if ever) does Trump’s legal issues possibly become big enough to force him out of the race?
Son of Columbian President Arrested on Money Laundering Charges.
On Saturday, the Columbian attorney general’s office announced that Nicolas Petro, the son of President Gustavo Petro, was arrested on money laundering charges, along with his ex-wife Daysuris Vasquez. According to an article in the New York Times, Petro, a politician in the province of Atlantico in Northern Columbia, was being investigated concerning his links with drug traffickers. Also, The Times states that Gustavo Petro’s brother was arrested on similar money laundering charges in January of this year. According to another article in The Washington Post, Ms. Vasquez claims that funds that were supposed to be directed towards President Petro’s campaign ended up in the pocket of Nicolas Petro. The dinnertime conversation in the Petro household recently must have been awkward.
Another Ally of Navalny Jailed.
A close associate of Alexei Navalny was jailed for nine years on Monday after being found guilty of “extremism” charges. According to ABC News, Vadim Ostanian, who ran the Siberian office of Navalny’s anti-corruption organization, was guilty in the eyes of the Russian state for organizing an extremist community and belonging to a non-profit that, in the words of the Russian government, “infringes on citizens rights.” Al Jazeera reported that last month another ally of Navalny Liliya Chanysheva was also found guilty on similar charges and sentenced to seven years in a Russian penal colony. It is highly likely that, like Navalny, Ostanian will not get the chance to appeal his conviction and will languish in prison. All of this further proves that Russia is a mafia state.
Corruption Scandal Tarnishes Squeaky Clean Singapore.
Singapore is not generally a place that is prone to corruption scandals. However, last week Transport Minister Subramaniam Iswaran was arrested on corruption charges along with a billionaire hotelier Ong Beng Seng. While it is unclear what exact type of misconduct allegedly occurred, it is possibly bribery in some form. According to The Guardian, Seng brought F1 Racing to Singapore. An article in Yahoo stated that Ministers in Singapore are among the highest paid in the world as a way to discourage corruption. It is unclear how this will resolve itself. However, the Singaporean government is taking it very seriously.
Australia’s National Anti-Corruption Commences Operations.
Last week the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) came into existence. Creating a more robust Anti-Corruption body was a significant priority of the new Labour government under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. According to ABC News (Australia), the NACC will investigate “Serious and Systemic” Corruption. The NACC will also be open to anyone who believes they have evidence of potential corrupt behavior. According to an article in Nine News, 300 online referrals and 100 phone calls detailing possible malfeasance have been submitted.
One of the most high-profile cases so far involves the accounting firm PWC. According to a report by Yahoo, PWC is alleged to have shared confidential tax details from the Australian treasury as a way to increase business. A senator for the Green Party, Barbara Pococok, filed a referral to the NACC because she felt that the Australian tax office and the Australian federal police, as well as PWC, have serious questions to answer. A report in WAtoday.com says that the Green Party is only getting started, and they plan to make more NACC referrals. Unlike other Western countries, Australia is serious about rooting out societal corruption.
Is Thames Water Going Down the Drain?
This week in the UK, Thames Water, the company that supplies water to London and the South of England, faces an uncertain future. It has racked up debts of nearly £15 billion, and the UK government will likely have to bail the company out. Thames was privatized during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership in the 1980s, and since then, different entities have bought portions of the company. According to an article in The Independent, the single largest shareholder is a Canadian pension fund called the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which holds around 32 percent of the company. On top of that, the sovereign wealth funds of both Abu Dhabi and China. While there may not be any outright corruption, there is a valid question: why would a bunch of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds want a piece of a British water company? Besides making money, the whole situation seems murkier than the Thames. The future of Thames Water is uncertain; however, this proves that the Renationalization of crucial industries in the UK should be considered.
Crispin Corruption Report 