| THE LATIN AMERICAN GREED FACTOR |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Thursday, September 12 2002 |
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| There is a saying in Mexico that goes something like this: "A politician who is poor is a poor politician." It's sad to say but Mexicans-like many other Latin Americans-have grown accustomed to electing politicians who end up stealing millions from their countries' national treasuries. Unfortunately, several high profile cases seem to confirm that cynical point of view.
Recent headlines paint a disturbing picture of corrupt politicians, their friends and relatives lining their own pockets with government funds and illicit drug money. A few week ago, the watchdog group Transparency International declared that there is a strong perception throughout Latin America that corrupt politicians are putting private gain before the welfare of citizens and the economic development of their countries.
In Nicaragua, former president Arnoldo Aleman is facing charges of fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors say Aleman siphoned off $97 million in state funds and drug profits during his term in office. Aleman, who has been holding on to immunity from prosecution because he is a member of the Nicaraguan Congress, has denied the allegations.
$97 million is more money than Nicaragua-Central America's poorest country-spends annually on health care. Most Nicaraguans do not have access to sanitation services. A third of Nicaraguan children are so poor they can't afford textbooks. It's hardly a country that can afford to be robbed of millions.
In Peru, the amount of money pilfered under former President Alberto Fujimori could rise to $2 billion. Prosecutors believe much of it was stolen by Fujimori's spy chief and confidant Vladimiro Montesinos, who is in prison and at the center of a nationwide scandal. Montesinos allegedly kept $49 million in kickbacks from arms sales in Swiss bank accounts. The Swiss banks have returned the money-along with another $21 million allegedly stolen by a Peruvian general-back to the government of Peru, where prosecutors are now focusing on money possibly stolen by Fujimori himself.
I've seen poverty in Peru with my own eyes. I know the stolen millions, can be put to good use in Peru, where more than half the population lives below the poverty level, and millions survive on less than a dollar a day.
In Mexico, the brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he channeled public funds into private Swiss bank accounts. Mexican prosecutors claim Raul Salinas de Gortari stole as much as $12 million from a secret presidential account set up during his brother's presidency. The ex-president's jailed brother claims his millions came from Mexican businessmen who entrusted him with an investment account.
A Mexican court will decide whether Raul Salinas, who has already been convicted of masterminding the murder of a top Mexican politician, is telling the truth. But one thing is for sure: the former president's "secret bank account" could have been put to good use helping to feed, house and employ more than 40 million impoverished Mexicans.
In Argentina, prosecutors are investigating whether former President Carlos Menem maintains a Swiss bank account of $10 million. Menem left Argentina with plenty to cry about. Political corruption, tax evasion, and bad economic policies lead to a national banking collapse. Buenos Aires, which resembles a European city, is now home to a growing underclass of poor people affected by the economic crisis.
Its encouraging that the Bush Administration claims it will punish corrupt Latin leaders by helping poor countries recover stolen funds and by denying visas to crooked leaders seeking to enter the Untied States. Instead of taking shopping trips to Beverly Hills, summering in Miami and wintering in Aspen, greedy politicians should have their money taken away from them and given a one-way pass to jail.
Maybe this explains why so many poor people from Latin America risk everything to come to the United States. Millions of them see no way out of poverty and despair. How can they when public officials, who are supposed to improve the lives of their countrymen, are too busy robbing the national coffers? |
