Protests in Chile. April, 2015. Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Hardly anyone expected the national and international fuss about the corruption scandals in Chile, a country hailed as an example of development and democratic consolidation. The latest Transparency International report (2014) ranks Chile 21st in the world, a position that comes to show the country’s high level of integrity.
However, corruption is not a nonexistent phenomenon in Chilean history. When democracy was restored in 1990, a usual remark argued that Chile had probably had one of the most ferocious dictatorships in the region but, unlike other countries, had not suffered corruption. This confidence was disproved when Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London and, to the violation of human rights charges, corruption offences were added.
