BRASILIA, Brazil, (Reuters):
MOST COUNTRIES in Latin America are mired in corruption and are falling behind other emerging markets seeking to attract global capital, according to a corruption survey published yesterday.
The poll of 159 countries conducted by London-based Transparency International, a non-governmental group combating corruption, showed that not one Latin American country had made "noteworthy improvements" in perceived corruption in the past year.
By contrast, the report cited other emerging markets, including Taiwan, Turkey and Estonia, as improving their standing in the poll.
"Latin America is still less attractive to investors than other regions because of its corruption ratings," said David Fleischer, a board member of Transparency International Brazil, adding the area had "very lax controls and weak judicial systems."
Fleischer noted, however, that investors were not always put off by corruption. "Take Venezuela. It always had a poor corruption rating, but attracts a lot of investment because of its oil," he said. Venezuela was ranked 130th on Transparency International's global list.
Chile was Latin America's cleanest country, ranked 21st.
Colombia, where President Alvaro Uribe is struggling to end decades of guerrilla war, was the region's only large country to have marginally improved its corruption ratings to 55th.
Brazil, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came to power in January 2003 promising to clean up politics, showed a small increase in perceived corruption.
