OPINION: The Panama corruption miasma

The Development Bank of Latin America presented a report on corruption in the region. The document concludes that corruption is a systemic problem that has a high level of acceptance in Panama. Corruption is accepted because it is a fast way to access public goods and services or to generate extraordinary fortunes overnight. 

The peoples of the region choose to support corrupt governments in exchange for short-term benefits. The lack of education and the appropriation of the concept of common good disarm Latin Americans in the face of corruption. The situation would be worse without the effort of the independent media, who are disqualified as “obsessed” with corruption, or who are subject to derision and contempt for the powerful. Panama is facing a great generational challenge. It can break the culture of corruption, punishing criminals from all sides, or it can immolate their future at the stake of politicking and patronage. The decision is of each of the citizens and of each public servant. The root of the great evils of this country is one and only one: corruption. – LA PRENSA, Dec 13