If I thought that by travelling all the way to Chile in the fourth week of January I was going to get away from the Maltese general election’s signature tunes… I was wrong.
On January 24, I was in Chile’s capital, Santiago, in my capacity as a member of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), specifically my work on the Committee on Political Affairs, Security and Human Rights.
Santiago is a beautiful capital. Many of its grand buildings are used for public functions. Our meeting was held in the lovely Camera dos Deputados. The air and the environment of the meeting was the heady atmosphere that Latin America offers so bountifully: the combination of Old World charm and grandeur with the New World’s staggering expanses of natural beauty.
However, although Santiago was a complete change of scene from Brussels and Malta, the topics selected for my sub-committee to discuss were more familiar: corruption and transparency.
Of course, we discussed the topic a bit more calmly than it is being discussed in Malta. First, we tried to keep a sense of perspective.
The European Union is not without its faults in this area. Some of its member States, such as Greece and Bulgaria, are to be found fairly low on Transparency International’s global index. Even France, a founding member, does not do as well as one might expect, partly because its politicians are not obliged to declare their assets.
However, in comparison with the global South, the economically-developed North does relatively well, especially in having the mechanisms in place to fight systemic (as distinct from ‘normal’ individual cases) corruption.
In Latin America, the problem is particularly widespread, although our host, Chile, is a notable exception. There have been notorious cases that revealed a trail leading all the way to the top in Mexico and, more recently, in Brazil.
The result is, as one Latin American politician has put it, that while Latin America is not the poorest region in the world it is the most unjust. Corruption takes its toll on justice.
The connection between low levels of corruption and higher levels of economic development is no coincidence. The World Bank has calculated that corruption can cost a country as much as 0.5 to one per cent of GDP growth per year.
The opposite is also true, sometimes. Low levels of corruption may be positively rewarded. Chile is a vivid example.
It is the country which attracts most foreign direct investment in the region. The per capita income based on GDP has risen to $18,000, making it the highest in South America. Tourism is also a major earner because the country is so varied and so beautiful.
After a turbulent period for this democracy, beginning 40 years ago, when a democratically-elected government was toppled in a coup to be followed by long years of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Chile is now known as one of the leaders of South America in most spheres.
It is a democracy which has been awarded by the EU, for its endeavours, with a favourable trade agreement allowing it to export to the EU almost 97 per cent of its products as if it were a member State.
However, my brief visit helped me understand corruption from a much longer historical perspective. To understand that corruption is not just about crooked financial dealings. It can also be felt in a different way when ancient political wounds fester.
Chile is probably the South-American country which I know best. I have been there four times and have visited Arica, in the far north, and which is desert land, to Punta Arenas in the far south.
I have enjoyed the sight of its renowned fjords, which end at Port Montt, as well as the road from Valparaiso, on either side full of vineyards, a fitting natural monument to the poet Pablo Neruda, the famous Nobel Prize winner, who had houses (separate) for each of his three mistresses.
I say all this to show that I have some knowledge of the atmosphere and tempo of life in Chile. During my previous visits I had never felt unsecure. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that having visited all the countries in South America I felt safest in Chile. This time round, however, Santiago felt different.
It has been experiencing a number of terrorist attacks. In the capital, the Government’s preoccupation with security was very visible. The hotel was protected from within and without. Police officers guarded the pedestrian areas in force. On my last night, all the roads surrounding the hotel were guarded profusely.
Even so, the Government is likely to lose the general election this year because of this very issue (although another problem has been a series of educational reforms that have been resented by many voters).
The terrorist attacks are being attributed to Mapuches, the indigenous people of Chile.
When the conquistadores ventured into Chile, either across the desert or the Andes from Peru, the indigenous people were the best warriors they ever encountered.
Today, the Mapuche are deeply divided, just like their ancestors. Some of them, however, have taken to violence to reclaim land for themselves.
It is not just graft and bribes that have a corrupting influence on a country. So does violence and its historic injustices. Its corrupting influence can poison the body politic for far longer than we think.
John Attard Montalto is a Labour member of the European Parliament.