Venezuela – which is seeing improved US relations -- remains third-worst worldwide.

BY LATINVEX STAFF

Corruption in Argentina worsened the past year, but improved in Brazil and Mexico, according to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index from Germany-based watchdog Transparency International.

Meanwhile, Venezuela – which is seeing dramatically improved relations with the US government – continues to rank as the worst in Latin America and third-worst globally.

All in all, Latin America saw a slight decline in its average transparency score, according to a Latinvex analysis. Of 19 Latin American countries, six saw deteriorations, six saw improvements and seven saw no change in their score.

Transparency warns of the danger of organized crime in Latin America, which is now impacting even the region’s least corrupt countries.  Uruguay, which still ranks as the most transparent country in Latin America, saw the worst decline in its score, while Costa Rica – which ranks as the third-most transparent country in the region – saw a 2 point decline.

“Now, Costa Rica (56) and Uruguay (73), the region’s strongest democracies and CPI performers, are suffering from the violence fuelled by corruption and organised crime,” Transparency says.

ARGENTINA

Argentina’s score fell from 37 in the previous score to 36 now and the country fell one spot on the Latin America ranking (from 6^th to 7^th place).

The South American country was rocked by several major corruption scandals last year.

This month a judge ruled that Diego Spagnuolo, the former head of the ANDIS national disability agency, will stand trial on corruption charges, on charges of illicit association, collecting bribes, defrauding the state and dealings incompatible with the post of public official between 2023 and 2025.

In voice messages that emerged last August, Spagnuolo claimed that a percentage of the kickbacks obtained from pharmaceutical chains, three percent, were destined for Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, the Buenos Aires Times reports. He also said he had warned President Javier Milei of what was happening and blamed presidential advisor Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem for the scheme.

President Milei has denied the accusations from Spagnulo.

Meanwhile, Milei’s credibility was hit early last year from the so called Cryptogate scandal, Deutsche Welle reported. Milei endorsed $LIBRA, which is a meme coin, in a social media post on February 14. During the time the tweet remained pinned to Milei’s account, $LIBRA quickly rose in value from $0.000001 to $5.20.

But after Milei withdrew his support, following allegations the coin was a rug pull scam [a scam where investors withdraw all their funds from a project and abandon it — the ed.], its price dropped to $0.99 within hours. At its peak, the $LIBRA market reached $4.6 billion, then fell $4.4 billion leaving it worth only $162 million.

Milei has denied any wrongdoing.

 

Latin America Corruption
Ranked by transparency rank
LA Rk	Gl Rk	Country	Score	Ch
1	17	Uruguay	73	-3
2	31	Chile	63
3	46	Costa Rica	56	-2
4	84	Cuba	40	-1
5	99	Colombia	37	-2
6	99	Dom. Rep.	37	1
7	104	Argentina	36	-1
8	107	Brazil	35	1
9	116	Ecuador	33	1
9	116	Panama	33
11	120	El Salvador	32	2
12	130	Peru	30	-1
13	136	Bolivia	28
14	141	Mexico	27	1
15	142	Guatemala	26	1
16	150	Paraguay	24
17	157	Honduras	22
18	175	Nicaragua	14
19	180	Venezuela	10
		Average	34.5	-0.2
LA Rk=Latin America rank
Gl Rk=Global rank
Ch: Change in score from 2024 index
Sources: Transparency International, 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index; Latinvex (rank, changes)

 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Other countries that saw improved scores include the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala. Of those, El Salvador saw the greatest improvement, with its score going from 30 to 32.

The Dominican Republic marks its fifth straight year of improvement and is the only Latin American country that has significantly improved the past five years, Transparency says.

However, a slate of recent scandals implicating government figures may impact next year’s ranking. Meanwhile, there is growing frustration with several high-profile cases against prominent figures in the Danilo Medina Administration (2012-2020) that have yet to result in convictions due to a slow process through the courts.

COLOMBIA AND PERU

Colombia was among the three countries with the worst declines, seeing its score go from 39 to 37.

The country has seen a series of corruption scandals implicating officials of President Gustavo Petro’s government, including Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa, finance minister Ricardo Bonilla, interior minister Luis Fernando Velasco, presidential chief of staff Carlos Ramón González. Bonilla and Velasco were arrested in December, while Gonzalez remains a fugitive in Nicaragua.

Peru’s score also declined this past year after continued corruption scandals in the country. President Dina Boluarte was implicated in various scandals and ended up being ousted by Congress in October. However, her interim successor Jose Jeri is now involved in a scandal of his own related to possible illegal dealings with Chinese businessmen.

VENEZUELA

Transparency International includes Venezuela among four countries globally that have seen a substantial and prolonged deterioration since 2012.

“Their declines are steep, persistent and hard to reverse because corruption becomes systemic and deeply ingrained in both political and administrative systems,” the organization says.

© Copyright Latinvex

 

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