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Chile Seeks Political Transparency

Categories: Latin America, Chile, Governance, Politics

Last week, Fernando Flores [1] (ES), Senator from the leftist coalition, decided to suspend his party affiliation to the PPD [2] because of a corruption scandal with other senators from the same coalition.

The week before, the worldwide ranking of transparency listed [3] (ES), Chile at position number 20 and first in transparency in Latin American. 

Referring to the positions of the coalition, Rodrigo [4] (ES) writes:

Vemos acciones de defensa corporativa, aparecen comisiones secretas que ya no lo son  y otras rebeliones senatoriales, como la Renuncia y declaraciones del Senador Flores al PPD – pandilleros y camorra – y sus consecuencias posteriores, para luego callar. Nadie podría aceptar a políticos electos con  dineros del Estado y menos aún si con dineros públicos se llega al gobierno por medio de la intervención electoral directa o indirecta.. Ese es el gran dilema actual”.

We see corporative self-defense actions, secret committees that are no longer secret and other senatorial rebellions, such as the withdrawal of Senator Flores from the PPD- gang members and pure trouble – and their consequences, that later were silenced. No one could accept elected politicians with government money, and less so if that public money reaches the government through direct or non-direct electoral intervention. That is the current big dilemma.

Esteban Valenzuela [5] (ES) gives us an approach of why these acts happens, posted in El Rancahuaso:

La crisis de estos días tiene dos raíces; el decaimiento de la ética personal que nos puede llevar a malas prácticas cuando la ansiedad de tener y poder nos lleva a perder el sentido de lo correcto y lo justo; y también la permanencia en Chile de un sistema muy centralizado de control político y asignaciones con discrecionalidad, que permiten redes de cooptación política, aprovechamiento de privados y empresas o abusos de funcionarios”. 

The crisis these days has two roots; the decline of personal ethics, that could take us to bad practices when the anxiety of having power makes us lose the sense of what is correct and right; and also the continuance of the centralized system of political control and the random assignment of power and abuse of functionaries and private businesses.