Workers pretend to beat a man dressed as former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, center, during a protest in Lima, Peru. AP Photo/Martin Mejia.
Francesc Badia: Thank you very much, Mr. Ugaz, for speaking with DemocraciaAbierta. There are several intricate issues on the agenda of transparency at the international level, although a number of steps forward have undoubtedly been made in recent years. The perception is that, in general, transparency and therefore denunciation and the follow up of major corruption cases hardly ever translate – at least in Latin America - into political consequences for the politicians involved. Above all, due to the deactivation mechanism that goes: "everyone is corrupt: this one is corrupt, but the other one is also corrupt; so, when it comes to voting, I'd rather do it for my corrupt one than for somebody else’s". It seems that one corruption nullifies the other. How do you see this problem?
José Ugaz: Corruption is a complex phenomenon, and I think it depends a lot on which point of view you choose to look at it. I think the reality today is a reality of light and shade. Although it is true that there are many more corruption scandals --and we just witnessed a global explosion with the Panama Paper revelations--, corruption has also become a lot more visible than in the past. And that speaks well of the investigation mechanisms, and of the tools of transparency and social mobilisation in many places, which have resulted in these cases coming to light. Before there was much more opacity, I think, on the issue of corruption.
