Prosecutors, Voters, and the Criminalization of Corruption in Latin America
Lava Jato, an unprecedented transnational corruption investigation that started in Brazil in 2014 and spread throughout Latin America, paralyzed economies, upended elections, and collapsed governments. What made ‘the largest bribery case in history’ possible in a part of the world where impunity for grand corruption is the norm? Why did it expand beyond Brazil and why did prosecutors prove effective in some countries but not in others? To answer this question, we trace the legacy of reforms that enhanced prosecutors’ structural capacity to combat white-collar crime.