Guatemala

Guatemala has been the object of a major experiment in the form of a UN anticorruption agency which had investigated top corruption for 12 years before the government put an end to its mandate. Some administrative simplification and fiscal transparency reforms also took place in this interval, without touching the core of the captured state, or the deep politicization of the judiciary and law enforcement used to direct profits from organized crime and public resources to favorite channels. A last report from the departing agency concluded with the wise remark which shows why no anticorruption agency can succeed where there is systematic corruption and poor rule of law: “This cannot be solved without a profound restructuring of the state.”