United by corruption: the scandals of Sanchez and his four Ibero-American colleagues

The left has been displaying a propensity for shamelessness and a desire to teach moral lessons to those who endure its vile acts.

Socialist corruption in Spain briefly explained to people from other countries
Pedro Sánchez's antidemocratic international and his friendly photos with dictators

Five leftist leaders who embrace the banner of democracy

Yesterday, the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, traveled to Chile to participate in a meeting called "Democracy Always" with four other leftist leaders: Gabriel Boric (President of Chile), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (President of Brazil), Yamandú Orsi (President of Uruguay), and Gustavo Petro (President of Colombia).

During this meeting, these five leftist leaders presented themselves as defenders of democracy and equality. Sánchez said that in inequality "the far right finds a breeding ground for spreading the virus of extremism and polarization." A statement full of cynicism from a politician who wants to grant tax privileges to one of the richest regions at the expense of the poorest ones to please his separatist partners and who also granted an amnesty to criminals to obtain their support for his re-election, openly trampling on the equality of all Spaniards before the law.

Pedro Sánchez's corruption scandals

The five participants in that meeting have more in common than just being leftists: all five are tainted by corruption scandals that are undermining their credibility in their respective countries. Thus, what they did yesterday in Chile was use the banner of democracy to cover up these scandals, something that in the case of Sánchez is especially shameless, considering his attacks on judges and the media that have brought to light the scandals affecting his personal entourage, his government, and his party, the PSOE. Let's remember that right now Sánchez has his wife, his brother, his attorney general and the last two organization secretaries of the PSOE accused of various crimes, in addition to other socialist officials. His party is collapsing in the polls and he is desperate to distract attention from these scandals however he can and at any price.

Gustavo Petro's corruption scandals

The Colombian president has an even more complicated situation than his Spanish counterpart, which is already difficult. Two years ago, a scandal broke out alleging that Petro's son financed his father's election campaign with money from drug trafficking. Since then, and amid a growing wave of corruption cases, Petro's family has been engulfed by nine other scandals. In May 2024, it became known that his government bribed members of Congress to gain their support for particularly controversial reforms, such as expanding the government's debt ceiling. His former finance minister, Ricardo Bonilla, has been singled out by the Prosecutor's Office for this scandal. Just as Pedro Sánchez has done in Spain, Petro has attacked the media outlets that exposed these scandals, trying to discredit and stigmatize them. And now he even dares to talk about "democracy."

The corruption scandals of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

As for the Brazilian president, corruption scandals marked his first term (2003-2010), but his supporters, like many Socialist voters in Spain, decided that a corrupt politician deserves a vote if he is left-wing. Lula regained the presidency in 2023 and is already immersed in a major corruption scandal: a major fraud against retirees from whom high-ranking officials of the National Social Security Institute (INSS) stole amounts exceeding 1 billion dollars. A scandal that has seen Lula reach the highest level of unpopularity of his second term, with 58% of Brazilians saying they feel ashamed of their president. Added to this are Lula's authoritarian attitudes and those around him, with measures typical of a dictatorship, such as the order to block access to Twitter in that country for refusing to censor users, including members of the opposition, who had not committed any crime.

Gabriel Boric's corruption scandals

As for the Chilean president, Boric is also immersed in a series of corruption scandals that run parallel to the economic ruin caused by his socialist recipes. For example, the president and his political entourage are involved in cases of embezzlement of public funds, tax fraud, irregular financing of his campaign and irregular contracts, the latter amounting to 426 million pesos. As a result, Boric is facing clear disapproval ratings that reached 70% in May.

Yamandú Orsi's corruption even before taking office

The Uruguayan president is the one who has been in office for the shortest time (he took office on March 1), but Yamandú Orsi has already been singled out for his management of the Canelones City Council, which he turned into "a refuge for cronyism, corruption and clientelism, using public resources to build a partisan structure that now supports him", as reported by Correo de los Viernes. In November, complaints against Orsi related to these alleged cases of corruption were admitted before the Transparency and Public Ethics Board.

They sign a joint text that omits any reference to corruption.

Considering what we have just reviewed, it is significant to see that there is not a single reference to corruption in the text signed by these five politicians. Despite reviewing various causes that they identify as "symptoms of a deep malaise among broad sectors of the citizenry", they conveniently forgot to mention the issue that is generating the most criticism against them, as if it were a taboo that should not be discussed. This is the particular idea of democracy that the left has on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

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Photo: La Moncloa.