US Lack Of Engagement In Latin America Hinders Region's Corruption Fight

Latin America has been mired in political upheaval for a few years, due to investigations against corrupt and criminal politicians in the region. In 2017, however, some of the more corrupt regimes struck back, argue Steven Dudley and Jeremy McDermott in a year-end piece at InSight Crime. 

"Throughout the region, the criminal landscape fragmented further. Even the largest criminal groups now work more as federations than vertically integrated structures. Amidst it all, the US government moved from bold backer of anti-corruption and anti-crime efforts to a disinterested, disengaged party, often enabling reactionary and corrupt forces," the authors explain. 

The Trump administration has yet to appoint several key positions in the State Department and has offered little direction to its representatives throughout the continent, leaving plenty of room for action for those leaders with little regard for democracy and the rule of law.

Plenty of cases in the region have also put countries' judicial systems to the test, and in 2018, they will do so with little support from the Trump government. 

As Dudley and McDermott write, "the region once seemed swept up in an effort to break the relations between elites and organized crime and may still have the enthusiasm to accept the challenge. But with a disinterested US president who disdains any law that does not favor him and a US administration that is ejecting its most important foreign policy voices, dark days have returned".