This deceptively brief collection provides an overview of the impact of corruption in Latin America with essays on six different countries. After an introduction and a "conceptual review," individual chapters consider the issue in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. Each chapter addresses the question from a different perspective. The introduction and first chapter consider public perception and review useful concepts for approaching the issue. The chapter on Mexico also centers survey data to examine links between corruption, weak institutions, and organized crime. The chapter on Guatemala addresses the issue with a narrative focused on the rise and fall of the International Commission against Impunity. That on Colombia has a similar structure, though it is less centered on a single institution, reflecting the fractured nature of political conflict and non-state actors involved. The examination of Peru, "A Tsunami of Scandals," lays out that dizzying national history, followed by a chapter on Bolivia shaped by the author’s experience. The chapter on Brazil eschews discussion of the Odebrecht scandal and the Lava Jato investigation to examine questions of organized crime and the state. Without providing a synthetic overview, the collection demonstrates the complexity of studying and understanding corruption. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna S. Kassab’s edited volume has assembled top scholars and think tank researchers to produce a wide-ranging look at corruption in Latin America. With chapters on democratization, state fragility, and corruption in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, and Colombia, no other volume is as comprehensive an assessment of corruption in the region. As Latin America reels from pandemic and widespread criminal violence, the question of corruption is one policymakers and scholars will need to grapple with. This volume will light the way.

Nathan P. Jones, Sam Houston State University

From Mexico to Brazil, corruption remains deeply entrenched throughout the Americas. Rosen and Kassab have put together a valuable, up-to-date collection of case-studies to help us make sense of the corruption of politics and the politics of corruption in the region.

Peter Andreas, John Hay Professor of International Studies, Brown University (co-author of Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations)