An ICEFI study concludes that corruption in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras covers "virtually all sectors" and in Guatemala alone, the losses generated are estimated at $550 million per year.
The book "Corruption: Its Paths and Impact on Society and an Agenda to Confront it in the Central American North Triangle", "... studies the relationship between corruption and democracy, highlighting that corruption in the C.A.N.T -El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - has special characteristics derived from historical aspects, such as the construction of weak states, periods of authoritarianism, civil war and counterinsurgency systems, and the impairment of judicial independence."
In exercising its responsibility as the main active force in Panamanian society, the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture is demanding that the branches of government and its authorities correct their behavior, and serve purely national interests.
EDITORIAL
The validity of democracy as the best system of coexistence depends on the vigilance with which citizens monitor the behavior of State authorities.
Threats made by organized criminals to transporters were carried out on monday when 7 drivers who had not joined the strike ordered by gangs were killed.
EDITORIAL
For the second consecutive day thousands of people "... were affected by a transport strike which was apparently the result of a vicious rumor mill unleashed by gangs that terrorized employers and employees in the sector, after the burning of several units and murder of motorists. "
The Otto Perez Molina administration appears to be disintegrating in time with the successive dismantling of networks of entrenched corruption at the highest level, jeopardizing the country's basic institutions.
EDITORIAL
There are very few occasions when political parties with different ideologies and civil groups with dissimilar origins in Latin America have teamed up to denounce the same cause, as is currently happening in Guatemala.
If the Honduran institutions do not recover from the recent elections, the country and the entire region could be seriously jeopardized.
And the near future of the country will depend in part on how differences over the election results are resolved.
An editorial in Nacion.com reports: "Against a background of institutional weakness, constant expansion of drug trafficking, petty corruption, gangs, violent crime and a rate of 86 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the largest in the world, Honduras presidential election was held on 24 November."