The struggle against corruption requires strong institutions and leadership — both lacking in Peru, notes Sonia Goldenberg, a former executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Many of the decision makers with the power to reform the system have been accused of wrongdoing, she writes for The New York Times:
Key players in the public and private sector also benefit from a corrupt system. They are the most interested in maintaining the status quo. Are they going to carry out the much-needed electoral and political reform that can end up putting them at risk of going to jail? …The one card [the new president Martín] Vizcarra still holds is the widespread disillusionment with Peru’s Congress. If he can mobilize public opinion to support a new anticorruption campaign, he may force lawmakers to go along with it for fear of being exposed.
Vizcarra is the accidental president, but the fact that he never aspired to this job may prove to be his strongest political weapon, adds Goldenberg, a journalist who directed the documentary “Eye Spy” [above], an exposé on Peruvian corruption videotapes.
