Corruption in Latin America

My blogpost about Brazil and its struggle to combat corruption, made me curious about corruption-levels in other Latin American countries. I was interested in historical data to evaluate each country. I wanted to know in which countries corruption is increasing or decreasing and in which countries corruption-levels remain more or less stable.

Brazil's Anti-Corruption Struggle

 Brazil won the right to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament on 30 October 2007 as the only country that was left to enter a bid. On October 2, 2009 Rio de Janeiro was officially announced to host the Olympic Games 2016. These two upcoming world events put great pressure on the country not only to make it a success, but Rio has to put its very best foot forward, because it will be in the World's spotlight.

The Need and Financing of Venezuela's recent Weapon Purchases

While most NATO partners are cutting defense budgets because of the economic crisis and their activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, the arms build up in Latin America is getting stronger. Venezuela and Colombia are the countries that are investing most in new arms lately. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’ weapon purchases in recent years that are totaling more than $15 billion already, is creating unrest in Latin America. While President Chávez says that Venezuela has the right to modernize its army, which is of course very true, he also said he wishes to spend $30 billion to modernize the country’s armed forces. But there is something odd going on here.