The majority of Central American nations are perceived as being the most corrupt in Latin America.

The Index of Corruption Perception created by Transparency International, ranks Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua in the list of countries perceived as the most corrupt.

Honduras is ranked at number 140, while Nicaragua and Guatemala are located in positions 127 and 123, respectively.

Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador, despite having better scores, are also at the bottom of the list.

An article in Revistamyt.com reports that “The IT director of Americas, Alejandro Salas, said that “what stands out the most is Central America’s fall as a block. One explanation is that organized crime groups need corruption in order to smuggle drugs, weapons and people. ”

It goes on to say that “corruption in the public sector remains ‘one of the greatest global challenges,’ according to the NGO, which considers the most problematic areas to be ‘political parties, the police and judicial systems. ”

The Index of Corruption Perception rates the perceived corruption of governments in 177 countries. The scale, which ranges from 0 to 100, awards 100 points to countries perceived to be free of corruption and 0 to nations where the level of corruption is perceived as very high.

See: The 2013 corruption perception index

Source: Revista Mercados & Tendencias