Scatter plot comparing Latin American countries' Capacity to Combat Corruption (CCC) scores in 2020 and 2023, showing the Dominican Republic saw the best improvement while Guatemala experienced the biggest regression | Sources: 2023 Capacity to Combat Corruption Index, Latinometrics

When we last wrote about corruption in Latin America a few months ago, we talked about the perception: how everyday citizens feel the country they're living in rewards or punishes corruption.

Today, we're going to talk about the tools fighting this insidious problem. And to do so, we're going to be taking a look at a helpful index produced by our friends over at Control Risks and the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, the Capacity to Combat Corruption Index.

Rather than measuring corruption perception, the CCC index seeks to measure out the capabilities of various countries to fight corruption through 14 variables such as judicial independence and the strength of civil society.

The 2023 numbers are in—and for many countries, they're quite grim. Over the past few years, most of the region's largest countries—including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, & Mexico—have seen drops in their capacity to combat corruption.

Even regional leaders on this metric, such as Chile, Costa Rica, & Uruguay, have fallen in the years since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Guatemala, which is currently seeing a contentious election characterized by elite corruption and democratic backsliding, has seen the largest drop since 2020.

But it's not all bad. Both Ecuador and Paraguay have grown their score in this year’s index, going against a general trend within their South American neighbors that is far from promising. Meanwhile, certain Central American and Caribbean countries have seen boosts to their index score, with both Panama and the Dominican Republic faring better than most of their peers. The latter in particular saw the largest jump in score in the whole region, showing a great rise in capabilities.

Corruption is a persistent problem, one that can only be fought through teamwork involving journalism, institutions, and civil society. We can only hope to see more Latin American countries joining the DR in boosting their performance for the next edition of the index!