[TFine80]

Interesting that this is finally getting some US press.

I'm actually interested in setting up a Brazil ping list, anyone interested should message me.

[FreePaul]

Why is it more threatening now than in the last few hundred years? People know about it, accept it, expect it, pay it, profit by it. Maybe it is just more open in Latin America. Here we use lobbyists to pass money to our elected officials so it becomes more sanitary. Doesn't it?

[Jazzman1]

blame BUSH! /sarc/

[dila813]

... he vowed, would be an ethical, honest and moral government the likes of which Brazil had never seen."

That sounds familiar, ah Bill?

[raybbr]

Throughout Central America, too, prosecutors are pursuing cases against current and former leaders who lined their pockets while in power. In Nicaragua, former President Arnoldo Alemán has already been convicted of diverting state funds for his personal use and is appealing a 20-year sentence. Costa Rican prosecutors have accused two former presidents of taking kickbacks to award lucrative government contracts. And in Guatemala, the state's attorneys are seeking the extradition of former President Alfonso Portillo from Mexico on charges he embezzled $15.7 million.

According to supporters of CAFTA, CAFTA will fix all this.

[FOG724]

which he claimed to have earned selling vegetables

There is some truth in that I believe.

[Sabatier]

My Spanish class took a field trip to Mexico
a few years ago. At the border crossing on the
Mexican side the teacher pointed out how the
drawer to El Jefe's desk always remained open.
"You slip a few bucks in the drawer but don't
say anything." We got waved through the crossing
no problem. It's the way they operate.

[backtothestreets]

Seeing how our immigration laws have been successfully thwarted by the federal government to benefit "special interests", I've no doubt we may match, and surpass the corruption Brazil is experiencing.

[Dionysius]

This thread could have been posted fifty years ago. What else is new?