Latin America Needs More Whistle-Blowers

In Latin America, crooked business goes by many names. Coima, propina, the bite and -- my favorite -- "milk for the kids" are just a few. However you call corruption, people in 13 countries in the Americas agreed that it is one of the region's biggest scourges, according to pollster Latinobarometro. The algae bloom of scandal trailing dodgy Brazilian contractor Odebrecht SA's continental dealings has only cemented that conviction.

Saying "basta" to dirty deals is one thing; fingering culprits is quite another. The systemic nature of fraud and graft in Latin America discourages nonconformists, and the complicity of sitting government officials and ranking executives makes whistle-blowers more vulnerable targets. It's bad enough when those who speak up aren't taken seriously. Ask Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian Nobel literary laureate: In 2001, he fell out with his son Alvaro, who'd voiced "unjust and exaggerated" warnings about overly cozy relations between Odebrecht and then presidential hopeful Alejandro Toledo. The chill lasted years -- until Toledo fled Peru earlier this year ahead of charges he'd taken $11 million in illegal campaign cash from an Odebrecht bag man. "I now ask [my son's] forgiveness for the row and laud his suspicions and sense of justice," Vargas Llosa wrote recently in El Pais.