[LA Times] About as Corrupt as It Gets Official dishonesty has become a grotesque art form in Paraguay. Accountability is rare. So is outrage among ordinary citizens. By Héctor Tobar Times Staff Writer
December 14 2002
ASUNCION, Paraguay -- The president found himself in the middle of a stolen-car caper, which is an embarrassingly nickel-and-dime crime to have attached to your name when you're a head of state.
The vehicle in question was an armor-plated, silver BMW that had disappeared from a parking space hundreds of miles away in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Somehow, it ended up in this steamy South American capital -- with President Luis Gonzalez Macchi holding the keys. Then, a stolen Mercedes-Benz was linked to the first lady.
Few Paraguayans were surprised by the case of the first couple and the hot cars. Like other top officials here, Gonzalez Macchi had been accused of misdeeds more commensurate with his stature, including allegedly aiding in the embezzlement of $16 million in public funds. Now, he faces an impeachment trial in the Senate on charges related to both the stolen car and embezzlement.
Turn over the slimy rock of crime big and small in Paraguay and you stand a good chance of finding a politician, military officer or bureaucrat underneath. Now, the nation's leading thinkers are saying the time has come to accept a label bestowed on this nation of nearly 6 million people by outsiders: the champion of Latin American corruption.
"It's true and it hurts us," said Martin Almada, one of the nation's most respected human rights activists. "And it hurts more because we feel impotent to fight against this mafia that's running the country, a mafia that wears the cloak of democracy."
In few places from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego are bribery and official rule-breaking so blatant as they are in Paraguay. For two years running, the country has finished dead last among Latin American countries in a worldwide survey of corruption by Transparency International, a Berlin-based watchdog group. Only Nigeria and Bangladesh received more damning scores in this year's report.
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