The Future of Accountability and Anti-Corruption Efforts in Latin America: Guatemala and Argentina
About the Speakers:
Iván Velásquez Gómez has held positions as Deputy Prosecutor of the Department of Antioquia, Regional Director of Public Prosecutions in Medellin, and Auxiliary Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia, which put him in charge of investigating civil servants and various criminal structures, especially paramilitaries and drug traffickers, and Colombian Congressional members. He was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) by the Secretary General of the United Nations and led the commission until its end on September 3, 2019.CICIG was an international organization in charge of supporting the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office in the investigations of powerful criminal structures known in that country as illegal groups and clandestine security apparatus (CIACS). As a result of these investigations, under the direction of the commissioner, dozens of the highest state officials (including former presidents, ministers, congressmen and judges of the Supreme Court of Justice) and numerous businessmen were prosecuted for corruption-related crimes and illegal electoral financing. Other people have been prosecuted for extrajudicial executions, violent dispossession of land and money laundering.
Laura Alonso has an extensive and unique cross-sector career in government, Congress and the NGO sector for almost two decades. She was the head of the Anticorruption Office (AO) in Argentina for four years. Member of Congress for six and Executive Director and program manager of the chapter of Transparency International in Argentina for eight years. Publicly acknowledged as a democracy activist and a fierce advocator for institutional reforms, Laura is a profound analyst of Argentina and Latin American politics and institutions. After her four-years term leading the anticorruption and integrity policy, Argentina reached its highest assessment and position in the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International in 2020.Under her leadership the AO has developed new courses and tools to train officials. She also promoted new procedures to control the assets and interests of +55 thousand officials and produced historic decisions about the creation of the first presidential trust and divestment. The AO opened more than 2,000 investigations and it also participated in historic corruption investigations against former Presidents and more than 300 high-rank officials and businessmen. A former Vicepresident, a super powerful Infrastructure minister and other officials were convicted. She is a political scientist from the University of Buenos Aires and holds a master degree on public administration and public policy from the London School of Economics.
Full speaker biographies here...
Discussants:
Francis Fukuyama, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, Tinker Visiting Professor