The Autumn of the Patriarch
is essentially the life and impact in a fictional Caribbean country of a dictator installed in power by a military coup, financed by the English and later supported by the United States.
One of the most representative novels of the immortal Gabriel García Márquez that, like other great Latin American writers, delves into the ins and outs of how many of the dictatorships emerged in the 20th century and their consequences in abuse of power and corruption.
Such a relevant issue in the Latin American region that it is present in the core works of other great Latin American writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa, who in
Conversation in the Cathedral
or
The City and the Dogs,
brilliantly expressed the impact on society of the military dictatorships that proliferated in the 20th century.
In the end, we are facing a kind of “regional structural drama” in Latin American history. However, the evolution of things due to the democratic struggles was turning the page on those “classic” military dictatorships of the Somoza, Trujillo, Odría and many more.
It was an evolutionary process that, however, in some cases resulted in other governmental modalities combining authoritarianism and corruption. Thus, regimes that could have originally been “elected” led to arbitrary and corrupt exercise of power.
Overcoming the obstacles
In this diabolical authoritarianism-corruption feedback, processes like that of Fujimori in Peru come to mind. Or the even more recent “Pact of the Corrupts” in Guatemala. Two illustrative examples of how things changed in the region, including impact decisions within US foreign policy.
The example of the experience of transitions to democracy in Peru and Guatemala is therefore interesting. In both countries, the citizen mobilization/international community “combo” managed to overcome these delaying obstacles.
With particularities in each process, the popular mobilization was something central, expressing active fatigue in the face of abuse and corruption. But in convergence with an international community in action. Then and now the international community contributed to the objective conditions that called for change, gradually isolating the corrupt/authoritarians and pointing to the urgency of a democratic transition.
Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 and democracy was recovered in Peru. Serious criminal proceedings against corruption were immediately initiated in the context in which the justice system regained its independence in the heat of the democratic transition. In the evolution of democracy in Peru (1999-2000), the path of diplomacy was important: mainly the active role of some inter-American countries—including the United States—and the so-called “OAS Dialogue Table,” crucial in promoting effectively the transition to democracy.
Strong anti-corruption tools
The Guatemalan “pact of the corrupt” recently entered a “gangrene/collapse phase…”. This is thanks to the drive of popular mobilization and the active role of the international community. The government today is different—the democratically elected one—and conditions are changing.
For this result, some relevant decisions from Washington weighed on the international level, in addition to the crucial popular mobilization. The White House contributed fundamentally to isolating crucial figures in the “pact of the corrupt,” particularly congressmen, politicians and businessmen. And he also contributed to overcoming arbitrary obstacles so that Bernardo Arévalo, democratically elected, could exercise the presidency of the country.
It is not possible to summarize in a few lines what tools are available in the international arena to confront corruption. However, two particularly relevant spaces stand out: the multilateral and the bilateral (particularly with the United States).
Multilateral: UN against corruption
The UN Convention Against Corruption is fundamental, one of the most recent global international treaties and, at the same time, one of those with the most States Parties: 186. All the countries of America, for example. From Cuba to the United States, which is unusual.
The Convention is solid and has great clarity and precision in both its substantive and operational rules on crucial issues such as international judicial cooperation. It includes solid substantive developments on fundamental concepts: “influence peddling”, “abuse of power” (as forms of corruption) or “international judicial cooperation”, to mention just three examples.
And its text is not
a dead letter.
This is because, among other things, the Convention assigns a fundamental role to something crucial:
international judicial cooperation
. And this is no small matter. On the contrary, much of the treaty has been - and is being - implemented in connection with some investigations into the widespread corruption investigated in several countries - such as Brazil or Peru - regarding the Lavajato case.
And an important detail: for this cooperation to be legitimate and effective, it is a
sine qua non
requirement that these national systems in “cooperation” function and that they are independent of political power.
The bilateral ones: Engel and Magnitsky: they worked
The circumstances have led to the confrontation with corruption becoming one of the visible public priorities of the Biden government for the Latin American region. Particularly in Central America. Perhaps, under the following analysis: impunity against corruption can be a factor that promotes emigration (to the US, it is understood) after the political, institutional, social and economic instability that derives from it.
In the 2023 elections in Guatemala, as is known, the “pact of the corrupt” lost. And, consequently, the pact – including the Attorney General – went all out against the results. That resistance and opposition to respecting the results, however, ultimately turned out to be a backfire for “the pact.”
Turning to the contributory action of the Washington government, the recent—and growing—use by Washington of certain laws designed against corruption is notable. I refer, in particular, to the law on the
Engel List
and the
Global Magnitsky Law
and its use against corruption structures in Latin American countries. Both laws are “framework” norms for policies to react to corruption at high levels of government and business in Latin America.
They are currently two fundamental normative references to confront the abuse of power and the violation of human rights and give powerful powers to the president of the United States to act in pertinent cases. These powers are being used by President Biden. And Washington (the White House) has begun to act accordingly with both laws. He has done it recently in Guatemala, for example.
Both laws give the executive important powers to act against people accused of corruption, violating human rights or who, knowingly, undermine democratic processes in the region.
Based on the law on the
Engel List,
the US government has named, by name and surname, more than 60 Guatemalans as actors who undermine processes of justice and democracy. Consequence: voiding their visas and their powers to operate financially in the US.
Additionally, the
Global Magnitsky Law
operated , intended to directly and specifically sanction people accused of acts of corruption or human rights violations. Through it, the Treasury Department can sanction people by preventing them from entering the United States, by blocking their financial assets in the United States, and by other severe commercial and financial restrictions.
New challenges
Great challenges now lie ahead in Guatemala to improve and strengthen democratic institutions and their transparency. And, for the rest of the region, the challenge of fine-tuning the capacity of regional and global spaces aimed at preventing—and impeding—democratic deterioration.
Making, for example, good—and more efficient—use in the Latin American region of a powerful inter-American instrument: Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted in 2001 in Lima by unanimous decision of the general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS).
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