GUATEMALA. - Representatives from Latin American countries called yesterday to foment transparency in order to revert the damage caused by corruption when concluding the XII International Anticorruption Conference in Guatemala.

In order to fight against corruption, the involvement of the authorities and the civil society is necessary, also we need to restrain the flagellum and illicit enrichment, affirmed the executive secretary of the Inter-sectarian Commission for Transparency and Fight against Corruption of Mexico, Octavio Diaz.

On the other hand, the presidential adviser of Bolivia Eusebio Gironda indicated that "one of President Morales’ main preoccupations is to maintain an implacable fight against corruption, that has taken root in the country during the 23 years of democracy". "Corrupt people took 20 Billion dollars, that is to say, about 869 million dollars every year", lamented Gironda.

The executive director of the Nicaraguan Public Ethics Office, Haydé Acosta, commented that her country’s government "tries progressively to face and to reduce the causes of corruption".

Abel Fleitas, Argentina’s Anticorruption Office public prosecutor, agreed with his colleagues in the preoccupation of the persistent presence of the corruption phenomenon and said, "It has a public part and a private part".

The Guatemalan representative, Hugo Maul, expressed that President Oscar Berger’s government is continuously fighting against corruption “because that practice deepens poverty in our countries".

The president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, also solicited to fortify the mechanisms of transparency to fight corruption.

The presidents of the American Integration Central System (SICA) signed a declaration where they commit themselves to have a corruption free region by 2010.