The cases of payments to the troll Piero Calandreli by government officials to attack the press and the denunciations of a parallel financing structure of the government party are the first cases of corruption involving Rodrigo Chaves.
Socialismo Hoy editorial, PT press – Costa Rica
Faced with complaints from different sectors and media, the government distances itself from these events and insists that these are attacks by the “rogue press” and traditional political parties. These two specific cases of corruption in just seven months in office show that Rodrigo Chaves represents the continuity of previous governments.
Beyond these specific facts, we want to discuss the underlying problem: for us, corruption is a fundamental part of the capitalist system. We are not referring only to the theft or diversion of funds: corruption comes mainly from many legal mechanisms provided by the State itself, through its institutions.
There is a large number of laws voted in the Legislative Assembly in the country that allow evading taxes and social charges, as do companies in free zones. The very payment of the debt is a corruption mechanism that benefits private creditors.
The justice system is based on impunity, and therefore is complicit in corruption. We have seen this in the case of “cochineal”, “cementazo” and many more, or with large businessmen who are in default with social security who rarely go to jail.
This government is an integral part and staunch defender of this corrupt system; It is false that Chaves confronts the rich, rather he defends the interests of sectors such as bus drivers, rice importers, among others.
But deep down the problem lies in the fact that the capitalist system by itself, in its logic, is corrupt. It is based on the fact that the working class produces all the wealth, and only a small part of it is returned to them in the form of wages; the rest is stolen by the owners of the means of production: the capitalists.
That is why we believe that the thorough fight against corruption implies confronting the capitalist system; that is to say, to expropriate the means of production in the hands of the rich, and to destroy that corrupt bourgeois State through a revolution. For this, a workers’ government is necessary to build a socialist society with new institutions formed and directed directly by the popular sectors.