It is always difficult to establish how much corruption there really is in a country, since corruption is illegal and those responsible either try to hide it or to rebrand it as something more benign.
But if we look at the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) we find that in 2023 (Transparency International, 2025):
Country |CPI score |CPI ranking
Brazil |36 |104
Argentina |37 |98
El Salvador |31 |126
Venezuela |13 |177
Canada |76 |12
Australia |75 |14
We can conclude that in Brazil, Argentina and El Salvador, but especially in Venezuela, corruption is indeed more of a problem than in Canada or Australia. As to why, it seems that the resource curse, specifically the oil curse, is a prominent explanation of why Venezuela is doing worse, particularly since Chávez took power and used the income from oil to buy political influence/fund social programs for the poor.
A more general explanation of why Latin American countries have suffered more poverty and as a result more political instability than, say, Australia and Canada, is that there was often a stark division between the few haves (in terms of land ownership and other means of production) and many have nots.
This often had a racial dimension, with the economic and political elites more as European descendants and the rest more ethnically mixed, but especially the Indigenous people left out.
This economic division also meant a strong political division, with the poor have nots more attracted to Communist or socialist ideologies, which the elites (and middle class) saw as a great threat, occasionally supporting anti-democratic forces if a left-wing political majority (seemed to) win elections, for example in a military junta.
Many of these countries thus had stark switches from democracy to autocracy and back again, also preventing economic stability and thus potential for economic growth.
Argentina is a prime example of a relatively rich country that got wrecked by a doom loop of political and economic instability.
But if we look at the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) we find that in 2023 (Transparency International, 2025):
Country |CPI score |CPI ranking
Brazil |36 |104
Argentina |37 |98
El Salvador |31 |126
Venezuela |13 |177
Canada |76 |12
Australia |75 |14
We can conclude that in Brazil, Argentina and El Salvador, but especially in Venezuela, corruption is indeed more of a problem than in Canada or Australia. As to why, it seems that the resource curse, specifically the oil curse, is a prominent explanation of why Venezuela is doing worse, particularly since Chávez took power and used the income from oil to buy political influence/fund social programs for the poor.
A more general explanation of why Latin American countries have suffered more poverty and as a result more political instability than, say, Australia and Canada, is that there was often a stark division between the few haves (in terms of land ownership and other means of production) and many have nots.
This often had a racial dimension, with the economic and political elites more as European descendants and the rest more ethnically mixed, but especially the Indigenous people left out.
This economic division also meant a strong political division, with the poor have nots more attracted to Communist or socialist ideologies, which the elites (and middle class) saw as a great threat, occasionally supporting anti-democratic forces if a left-wing political majority (seemed to) win elections, for example in a military junta.
Many of these countries thus had stark switches from democracy to autocracy and back again, also preventing economic stability and thus potential for economic growth.
Argentina is a prime example of a relatively rich country that got wrecked by a doom loop of political and economic instability.
