- One of the most critical links in enforcing environmental laws is the public prosecutor’s office. Across the region, its efficiency varies, with the majority of cases still under investigation or dismissed.
- Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru have focused on strengthening anti-corruption prosecutors’ offices. One of the most high-profile cases was Lava Jato, which led to the arrest of officials and businesspeople in different parts of South America.
- However, in countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, prosecutors have used the judicial system to attack corruption in the political opposition.
Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, referred to a regional office for prosecution. For example, the anti-corruption specialists in Curitiba (4th Region) were instrumental in uncovering the perfidy of the Lava Jato bribery and money laundering network. Although media attention focused on the presiding judge (Sergio Moro), the investigations were conducted by a dedicated team of prosecutors who relentlessly accumulated evidence against some of the most powerful individuals in Brazil.
The impact of Brazil’s anti-corruption campaign is reflected by the number of criminal cases reviewed by the 5ª Câmara, which rose from 2,500 per year in 2002 to more than 15,000 annually in 2019. Very few, however, are referred for a trial: approximately 90% of the criminal complaints reviewed in the twenty-plus years of existence of the 5ª Câmara have been dismissed for technical reasons, most commonly for lack of evidence.
The lack of aggressive prosecution is also characteristic of their internal affairs unit (Corregedoria Nacional of the Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público), which recommended that 89% (940 out of 1,078) of the complaints filed against procuradores should be dismissed. The decision not to bring criminal charges may reflect the possibility that allegations against government functionaries (by the 5ª Câmara) and prosecutors (by the Corregedoria Nacional) are either frivolous or poorly substantiated. Nevertheless, the gap between the accusation (inquérito / queixa) and the formal charge (denúncia) calls into question either the efficiency of the complaint procedure or the legitimacy of the review process.
Efforts to combat political corruption in Peru have included reforms within the Public Ministry (MP), which likewise created a special anti-corruption unit (Fiscalías Especializadas en Delitos de Corrupción de Funcionarios – FECOF). Criminal complaints grew by an order of magnitude since the inception of the programme in 2000 and in 2020 totalled more than 78,000. Only 8% had been adjudicated by a court, while 54% were ‘in process’ and 38% had been dismissed on procedural or technical grounds. As in Brazil, the gap between accusation and prosecution for wrongdoing calls into question the efficacy of the system.
In Ecuador, a specialized task force assumed responsibility for prosecuting cases of political corruption in 2017. By December 2022, that unit had opened investigations into 2,075 alleged cases of criminal conduct, averaging about 450 per year; of these, 87% remained in the investigative phase, while 2% (49) had proceeded to trial, of which half ended in a conviction or plea bargain. Similar reforms have been pursued in Colombia, Guyana and Suriname, but likewise have suffered from clogged justice systems that fail to bring alleged perpetrators to justice.
The situation is even worse in Bolivia and Venezuela, where prosecutors have weaponized the judicial system to target the corrupt practices of political opponents while ignoring similar behavior by government-affiliated elected or appointed officials. In Peru, the penal code was weaponized to attack reporters in Peru, who had identified several businessmen involved in land grabbing and deforestation, by accusing them of defamation and libel. This occurred without the intervention of a prosecutor, however, as the company filed the complaint and forced an investigation and trial.
Featured image: Staff from the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office (FEMA) of the province of Santa, Peru, as well as the National Fisheries Health Superintendency (Sanipes) and the Police Environmental Intelligence Division raided an illegal canning plant. Image courtesy of FEMA Santa.
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