Amongst the most problematic issues of the modern society stands corruption. Ever since the concept of power and ability to control people were discovered, some individuals began to use them to their advantage. However, with the increasing number of opportunities that the modern media gives to ordinary citizens, it becomes more and more difficult to avoid taking responsibility for crimes such as bribery. The amount of data that is currently available to anyone who may require it leaves almost no possibility to cover every trail that leads to compromising materials. It was this fact that brought one of the biggest construction conglomerates to the point of collapse. An organization known as Odebrecht has been recently exposed for having significantly high numbers of corrupt members and amount of money spent on corrupt practices. Thus, this topic calls for proper coverage and discussion.
Facts
Odebrecht is arguably the biggest construction company presented in Latin America, headquartered in Brazil. From 2001 to 2016, Odebrecht spent about eight hundred million US dollars on bribing members of various organizations and individuals (Gillespie and Brocchetto). The number itself is enormous. This makes the case of Odebrecht’s involvement in corrupt activities exceptional. Such amounts of money spent on bribery must be out of the question since the penalties that may be received for corruption may be as severe as receiving a capital punishment in some countries. Nevertheless, the fact remains the same.
Odebrecht’s representatives and employees – after receiving accusations in bribery – had no choice but to admit that since 2001, they have been bribing political parties and government officials throughout three continents (Libardi). Mostly, the bribing deals proceeded in Latin America. All of this was a result of Odebrecht’s need to win various contracts in public sector. The period and amount of money involved in corrupt deals make this particular case the biggest bribery-related case in history. Needless to say, the reveal of these schemes and numbers resulted in outrages across the globe, not only in Latin America.
This case becomes even more perturbing because it began as an insignificant investigation led by the Brazilian town’s police. The case received a police code name “Lava Jato” – Brazilian for Car Wash (Nolen). As investigators collected more evidence, the case became more complicated and revealed connections to the most acknowledged Brazilian politicians. The fact that this corrupt network was discovered through such a small defect in the curtain that covered the whole system brings up two points. Firstly, there is a very high probability of such networks imperceptibly existing in each country. Secondly, all of these systems have flaws which may be revealed by unforeseen means.
The probability of such networks existing across the world is high almost to the point of being obvious. As of now, there is no sense in denying the corrupt nature of virtually every person that has a significant amount of power. Of course, there are lawful individuals who possess power. However, the number of corrupt politicians and rich people resorting to bribery is significantly higher.
Thus, there is a need to increase the severity of punishments implemented in cases of corruption. Moreover, there is a need to improve the quality of investigatory means that would prevent and uncover further crimes involving bribery. Both of these arguments are becoming more relevant with researching the Odebrecht case. With such an extremity in corruption-related cases, there is no doubt that the problem is of utmost importance.
Reasons
To fully grasp how important the Odebrecht’s case is to understanding corruption and bribery scales, one would first have to understand how “corrupt” Latin America is overall. There were numerous researches and expert’s opinions covering the topic of corruption rates in Latin America and what problems fraudulent activities create. For example, a paper by Oquendo specifically focuses on how the political corruption has led Latin America to not one but several legitimation crises across the decades (486-493). Moreover, it is precisely the case of Odebrecht that demonstrates that the situation did not improve at all. In fact, the impact that corruption has on the Latin America’s political and social landscape became as severe as never before.
Another research (Tabory) demonstrates the corruption indexes for the countries of Latin America, and the rates of corruption are, as stated by the author, again the highest in the Americas. There is no doubt that Latin America’s political and economic environment created countless possibilities for bribery-related crimes to remain undetected. Needless to say, that such a situation would not lead to a healthy community where corruption remains at low rates and is punished as severely as possible. What is even more problematic is the influence that the more corrupt countries have on the less corrupted ones. The corruption spreads through various business deals, political interactions, etc. Therefore, even if just one country initially has a high level of corruption, there is a possibility that every other country connected to the corrupt one is also endangered.
Another premise that could be attached to the Odebrecht case is that there is a highly unstable political situation in Latin America. Right after the evidence regarding corruption of Odebrecht had been revealed, the publicity started targeting the current president of Brazil – Michel Temer (Gallas). This leads to assuming that people of Latin America did not trust their authorities in the first place. Mainly because of the fact that history of corruption and all of the corresponding activities are well-known to the community. By now, it is unreasonable to deny that the authorities of Latin America are mostly corrupt. This leads to a gradually decreasing reputation of the governing elite in general. Furthermore, the decline in public reception may also lead to bribery. There would be a need for almost every corrupt politician to make their activities hidden from the media and public, which, in turn, leads to further bribes.
Thus, the vicious circle continues. The bribery is present, and almost everybody in Latin America admits its presence. The case of Odebrecht is the most significant evidence and possibly the last drop that caused the outbreak of public dissatisfaction – to say the least – with the current political and economic situation. The countries of Latin America are called “developing.” Nevertheless, the term is inapplicable. It is not applicable because of the fact that the countries developed a great deal in the past and were steadily increasing their status, but the enormous rates of corruption and bribery ravaged the community which led to a rapid decrease in the overall welfare of almost every country. To put it simply, there is an urgent need for something to change in order to restore public order and prosperity in Latin America.
Solutions
Of course, the most obvious solution to the problem of corruption is investigating all of the political and business activities across Latin America. However, as mentioned earlier, there is almost no way to simply discover all of the bribery networks that are currently functioning. It is simply not possible because the amount of resources that is required to perform such an overhaul is extremely high. Another reason is the fact that people who would be investigating the cases may be corrupt as well. Therefore, there is little to no guarantee that the investigations would lead to any results.
Corruption is a problem that has a feat of establishing in a community very quickly and very firmly. Any delay in resolving the problem would then lead to impossibility of dealing with it. The discovery of evidence indicating corrupt practices in Latin America is nowhere near recent. Therefore, it may be too late to assume that any solution may be found in short terms. Instead, Latin America now requires a great effort to be put into fighting off corruption. Nevertheless, the Odebrecht case demonstrates that it is indeed not too late yet and the problem may be successfully resolved. Although Odebrecht investigation is far from over and the consequences are highly unpredictable, it is, in fact, an important step on the road to decreasing the corruption rates and effectively preventing further bribery-related crimes.
Increasing the intensity of punishing bribery and improving the quality of investigation are two crucial steps to overcome corruption successfully. If the Latin America authorities take these into consideration and implement them in time, the situation in would drastically improve.
Works Cited
Gallas, Daniel. “Brazil’s Odebrecht Corruption Scandal.” BBC News, 2017. Web.
Gillespie, Patrick and Marilia Brocchetto. “This Company Created the World’s Biggest Bribery Ring.” CNN Money, Web.
Libardi, Manuella. “Odebrecht: The Largest Corruption Network in Latin America.” openDemocracy, 2017, Web.
Nolen, Stephanie. “Corruption beyond Brazil: Where the ‘Car Wash’ Scandal has Splashed across Latin America.” The Globe and Mail, 07 Jun. 2017, . Accessed 15 Jun. 2017.
Oquendo, Ángel. Corruption and Legitimation Crises in Latin America. Connecticut Journal of International Law, 2015. UConn Library. Web.
Tabory, Sam. “Corruption Index Shows Mixed Picture in Latin America.” InSight Crime, 2016. Web.