As discussed here, one of the prerequisites for obtaining a Chilean Driving License is an education certificate. Not a problem for Chileans, but a hurdle for foreigners who have not passed through the local educational system. As mentioned, it is possible to take the appropriate exam, which is apparently quite undemanding.
Certificado de estudio acreditando mínimo 8º básico, o fotocopia legalizada.
Faced with this obstacle, a couple of Education Ministry employees came up with a creative solution - they issued false certificates, for a fee, obviously, and made a lot of money - until they were caught.
“They were in charge of issuing educational certificates, primarily to foreign citizens. We are talking about more than 5,500 of these certificates, which they issued in exchange for payment, and this scheme generated profits of more than $360 million for these two public officials, at least since 2020,” he said.
Specifically, those arrested include two employees of the Ministry of Education and two foreign citizens, who were responsible for contacting people who needed to obtain driver’s licenses without meeting the necessary requirements, most of whom were foreigners.
I guess they mostly catered to Latino immigrants coming from counties where this type of fraudulent activity is is seen as normal.
In the past, this type of corruption simply didn’t happen. Its yet another example of Chile’s decline over recent years.
No, this type of corruption has been going on for a very long time and it is very much a part of the culture.
What has changed.
There are more people engaged in such fraud.
There are more efforts to attempt to limit this fraud
Media have become more willing and competitive in reporting fraud and corruption, (except where the judiciary is guilty)
But more than anything else, there is a greater willingness among the citizenry to openly and shamelessly accept that there is immense fraud and corruption. Well, maybe not shamelessly. It was that shame upon the country that kept polite people from admitting that this really is an inappropriate aspect of Chilean society. (“There may be some corruption but it’s ours and therefore we are not as bad as …[insert neighboring country names].”) The unwholesome nature of the pituto was not “wrong” but rather, natural and traditional.
What is truly disturbing is the naïveté of foreign agencies and their gullibility in failing in their “perceptions” of corruption. How often through the years did we read the rubbish from the likes of Lonely Planet and the “transparency” and “corruption perceptions” people, all lauding what amounted to their inability to ferret out the truth about just how very corrupt are the practices in so many sectors of life in Chile.
I would qualify my statement for this particular situation, where foreigners are involved. While corruption did exist, albeit on a much lower scale, a certain degree of trust between the parties is essential.
A native distrust of foreigners, seen as pájaros raros, naturally excluded them from those dodgy deals, and this is where I think the incorruptibility myth comes from.
Yes, as I said Chile has definitely degenerated morally in recent years.
PS, I realized that I had been accepted socially here when I was offered an opportunity to cheat one of our suppliers.
Again, wholly untrue, though perhaps you reflect personal experience.
Or maybe I’ve been here so long as to be considered pájaro endémico.
Chileans have long been known to thrive on cheating foreigners. I think that the long-resident foreigner horse lady in Maule can attest to this. In Argentina, chileno is often equivalent to “thief.”
Many years ago the national government here [CL] even proposed laws to give foreigners special rights to recover from fraud committed by Chileans. The proposal went nowhere, of course, but the recognition of the problem existed and exists.
In the years I have been in and out of the country, since the 1970s, I’ve seen countless examples of the locals defrauding foreigners. And that includes particular mention of the folks in the spectacularly corrupt legal business — the attorneys and the judges. Case in point: I was about to hire an attorney as plaintiff in a civil and criminal case involving, of course, a Chilean. I quizzed the attorney on the defendant and possibility of conflict of interest. He denied any conflict, but it later turned out that the defendant was already one of his clients! Ethics? Not in this country. And that’s the professionals. The “maestros” are particularly skilled, though not in their trades, but rather in the cheating of foreigners. Aprovechar, dicen…obtener una ventaja a menudo con astucia o abuso…
And the chilenitos will easily conspire with those innocents fresh off the boat, or plane, even with those who are unknown. Just look at the hostel- keepers and guides and legions of others who will give you a little “discount” (rubs fingers…) for not providing a receipt. So yes, foreigners often become unwitting co-conspirators in the quotidian practices of tax evasion crimes. And some of the other examples I’ve seen would fill books. Or sworn testimony.
The widespread recognition by the public of the expansive nature of corruption in Chile, particularly in government, may be comparatively recent, perhaps not more than 10 years old. But we see in the “Estudio Nacional de Transparencia 2018” that some 79 percent of those queried considered that public (esp government) agencies would fit into the category “corrupt or very corrupt.” And it’s no surprise that the socialists in Chile’s universities effectively excuse and promote the practices. Claudio Fuentes, “political scientist” at Universidad Diego Portales: "No es posible polarizar en términos de ‘blanco o negro’ si se habla de corrupción, “la corrupción es parte de la conducta humana”.
It’s time that international perceptions reached a comparable understanding of this undeniable reality.
Here in Magallanes we have a regional expression understood by almost no one on the outside. The term is “gauchada” and don’t expect an accurate dictionary translation that covers the local connotation. It is usually something like “a small unlawful gift” (a gaucho here, after all, is essentially an outlaw) typically by someone within a government or other organization that can afford a little bit of rule compliance deviation or loss from larceny.
To clarify: I was not referring to Chileans cheating foreigners, that should have been obvious. That practice is so widespread, as you and others have often stated, that it hardly bears mentioning. I have been a victim myself - many times and in many ways!
I meant the collusion involved when two parties conspire to defraud a third party.
There has to exist a certain amount of trust between the conspirators, and in the case of Chileans, cahuineros par excellence, they tend not to trust outsiders.
As a result, foreigners aren’t (or weren’t) invited to participate in shady dealings, and from there comes the incorruptibility myth.
Agreed: I do see an increasing tendency to excuse corruption with efforts to catalog it as a human weakness rather than a crime. Trouble is when once you start down that road, where does it end?
