US sees corruption, security and economic challenges in Latin America

The Secretary of State of USA, Antony Blink, highlighted in Ecuador three fundamental challenges facing democracy in the region, such as corruption, civil security and the economic and social challenge.

On his second day of official visit to the country, the head of US diplomacy gave a speech at the San Francisco de Quito University (USFQ) entitled “Making democracy comply with the Americans”, in which he spoke of the “ability of our democracies to close the gap between what we promise and what we do ”.

Blinken recognized the discredit and setback that democracies have experienced in the world and the region, although, he emphasized that 63% of Latin Americans consider it the best system of Government.

Global challenge corruption

“We come with ideas, but of equal importance, we come to listen with humility,” said the Secretary of State before listing three issues that the United States considers critical in the hemisphere and that democracies must tackle.

In the first place, he referred to the challenge of corruption, a problem that represents up to 5% of global GDP, he commented.

“It deepens inequality and impacts on the lack of trust in the Government,” he said, noting that a large part of the last social upheavals in the world had corruption as a catalyst, “which drains State resources that can be dedicated to schools, hospitals ”.

Blinken recalled that the president Joe Biden considers the fight against corruption a central issue and that at the 2018 Summit of the Americas the leaders of the hemisphere promised to adopt concrete measures in this regard, and that Washington seeks coordinated actions in this fight with the EU, the G7 and the OECD .

“As corruption has no borders, no country can fight it alone, without the help of other countries, that is why we are developing new tools and programs to improve the capacity of governments, investigative journalists, anti-corruption activists,” he clarified.

The second challenge he alluded to was that of civil security and he conceded that his country has invested for decades to combat transnational crime by equipping and training the security forces, in light of the fact that “Latin America and the Caribbean is the most violent region in the world ”.

However, he assured that the United States has focused “too much on the symptoms and little on the reasons”, something that is being worked on “to correct this imbalance” and to get populations that think that there are no other options to resort to. illicit activities have greater possibilities.

Emphasis on causes

In this new approach, he placed the investments made in drug abuse prevention and treatment, as well as mechanisms to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States. In addition, he stressed the importance of “repairing the social fabric and investing in the rule of law” in the countries of origin of illicit substances.

“This emphasis on causes is at the center of a series of high-level dialogue on insecurity in recent weeks with the Government of Mexico,” he clarified, and of current dialogues with Colombia and Ecuador, where a holistic approach to security has been announced. combat drug trafficking in parallel with citizen insecurity.

The last challenge that he highlighted for democracies is in the economic and social field, in which he advocated a greater defense of political rights, free elections, the rule of law, freedoms such as assembly and inclusive opportunities.

And as an example, he announced that an investment worth US $ 150 million is being analyzed through the Production Bank of Ecuador to promote small companies.

Today Blinken concludes his trip to Ecuador and travels to Colombia, where he will analyze with regional authorities the phenomenon of migration from a joint perspective.