Philosopher and historian Hannah Arendt noted that some of the most successful leaders of the Nazi Party were bureaucrats rather than fanatics or sociopaths. They embraced murder and corruption to achieve their goal. Such cold efficiency only added to the horror of events, and Arendt called it “the banality of evil.”
Guatemala's Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras has become a prime example of this phenomenon, although her crimes are not as significant. That's why the OCCRP community jury decided to recognize her as the 2023 Corrupter of the Year.
OCCRP - Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) - founded in 2006, a consortium of investigative centers, media and journalists working in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Central Asia America's only investigative reporting organization specializes in organized crime and corruption and publishes its stories in local media and on its website in English. and Russian in 2017, it was ranked 69th in the world in the NGO Advisor's annual list of the top 500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
FINALISTS OF THE “CORRUPTION OF THE YEAR 2023” PRIZE
Candidates are nominated by readers, journalists and editors from OCCRP and partner organizations, and members of the jury. This time, in addition to the “winners,” the ones who received the most votes were:
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina
In the hands of the government, Porras has become an effective tool in undermining the country's rule of law. She was involved in attempts to prevent President-elect Bernardo Arevalo from taking office: the activities of his political party were suspended, and the premises of the electoral commission were searched. Arevalo called it a “slow-action coup.”
The actions of Porras and her allies in government led to a political crisis in the populous Central American country. Citizens took to the streets in protest and blocked the main highway leading to the capital of Guatemala.
“Porras is defending what in Guatemala is called a ‘conspiracy of corruption’, involving corrupt businessmen, corrupt politicians, organized crime figures and retired generals,” said Maria Teresa Ronderos, director of CLIP (Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística - International Center for Investigative Latin America). ) and one of the jury members. “It has brutally persecuted conscientious prosecutors, journalists and activists, driving them out of the country and depriving the public of these important levers of influence on government.”
Porras was accused of failing to maintain independence from political interests, refusing to investigate and prosecute cases of high-level corruption, obstruction of justice, and appointing people to positions based on their political positions rather than competence or independence.
She oversaw a massive purge of pro-democracy officials. The homes of former and current officials were searched, individuals were sent to prison, and many were forced to flee the country for fear of arrest.
Porras defended the right-wing political elite, which made a fortune through massive corruption and ties to drug cartels. These officials and influential businessmen were involved in large-scale drug trafficking, human smuggling, and extorting bribes from foreign companies.
The actions of Porras and her allies in government have significantly slowed down democratic progress in the country. For decades, Guatemala was ruled by a military junta that launched a war that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Under military rule, extrajudicial killings, violence and widespread corruption became the norm.
In 2006, the UN established the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which was tasked with investigating the activities of “criminal groups that may have infiltrated government institutions.” The commission was responsible for prosecuting a number of persistent offenders. When Jimmy Morales became president in 2015, work stopped. His administration opposed CICIG and finally shut it down in 2019. Porras, who was appointed attorney general in 2018, played a key role in dismantling the commission.
Porras had to do everything possible to ensure that the corrupt leadership of Guatemala remained in power. The US sanctioned Porras in 2022, saying she had "repeatedly obstructed and undermined anti-corruption investigations in Guatemala to protect political allies and gain undue political allegiances." The EU is also considering introducing sanctions against those who try to challenge the results of the Guatemalan vote.
Porras is not like previous corrupt officials of the year. She is not a flashy autocrat, but a dry bureaucrat who does “her duty” by undermining democracy and protecting the kleptocratic elite.
She is not the only one supporting the new generation of autocrats.
People tend to think that dysfunctional states are run by authoritarian leaders, but the new autocrats do not reject democracy. They only undermine its foundations, including elections, the judiciary and government institutions. Key to this strategy are people like Porras - bureaucrats who destroy the democratic process while maintaining the illusion of normalcy. The new autocrats will not be able to govern without this professional class of bureaucrats. Porras and her ilk are the new faces of banal evil.
OCCRP's "Corrupt Official of the Year" honors Porras and her fellow class of corrupt bureaucrats who help the new autocrats. OCCRP has been running the competition since 2012, and Porras is the first woman to be named as a laureate.
