Many have been the occasions on which members of the current government, starting with President Juan Carlos Varela himself, have attempted to minimize scandals erupting around close colleagues.
In spite of the existence of proofs of wrongdoing against former officials of the current administration and people friendly with the governing party, the government has become accustomed to resorting to the defense that the scandals are just stories whipped up by political opponents.
The declarations of minister for the presidency Alvaro Aleman represent the latest case in point. According to the minister, the case involving former deputy minister Zulema Sucre was 'inflated' by media outlets and may have no legal ground.
Similarly, the case of former director of the institute for agriculture and fisheries (IMA), Edwin Cardenas, was a simple 'mistake', according to Minister Aleman, and one for which Mr Cardenas is facing justice.
In a television interview, Minister Aleman also tried to minimize the scandal of 'false physician' Grimaldo Cordoba, arguing that the fact that he had lied about his qualifications 'bore n relevance upon his public functions', and adding that 'although it was a serious case, there was also a lot of equivocation going on'.
It is a fact that Minister Aleman himself was singled out for naming a nephew to the ministry he oversaw, only to have to dismiss him shortly thereafter when faced with a barrage of criticism.
And while the government does not tire of repeating that it works in full transparency, the perceptions are quite different. In every public poll, the perception of the population on matters of transparency has been getting worse and worse.
In a recent poll, only 17 per cent of participants believe that the government is acting with a lot or total transparency.
In spite of this harsh reality, President Juan Carlos Varela does not miss an opportunity to extol the virtues of transparency of his administration, conveniently forgetting the many scandals that besiege it.
On top of the above mentioned, there is the purchase of heavy equipment machinery from company Airco SA on the part of the housing ministry (Miviot) via the National Assistance Program (PAN).
There is also the discovery of a network of corruption within the education ministry that may have caused as much as $4m in damages to the state; not to mention the international scandal known as the Panama papers, which involved disgraced law firm Mossack Fonseca and former presidential adviser Ramon Fonseca Mora.
Last but not least, the complaints made against former health minister Javier Terrientes, who in his capacity signed a fractioned contract for the collection of dangerous waste across state hospitals.
That is why the “language” used by minister Aleman appears so strange to Enrique Montenegro of the Anti-Corruption front.
Mr. Montenegro believes that 'it is pointless to try and deny the obvious', which is something that makes Minister Aleman's casual declarations that "there will always be some case o corruption in government' difficult to comprehend.
According to lawyer Ernesto Cedeno, the declarations of the minister to the effect that the case concerning former deputy minister Sucre may have been 'inflated' are plainly lamentable.
As is the fact that, in spite of the minister's claim that 'the government has shown there is no impunity', plenty of government figures have not been as much as called to declare by state prosecutors.
