Walmart has thousands of operating units around the world but except for Chile has very few in South America. There's a reason for that. Walmart doesn't build in countries lacking political stability. Peru is one such country, and the root cause of Peru's instability, as with many other South American countries is corruption. To understand the magnitude of the problem you need to see and experience it as I did, for nearly ten years. Corruption is the name of the game. It covers the spectrum from the President of the country to the lowliest desert village official. It is the way of life, deeply imbedded in the Peruvian culture. The population assumes that all public workers are corrupt. They don't accept it but they expect it, and there is not much difference between the two.
Jobs and positions can be bought, laws can be circumvented, and fortunes can be made by greasing the appropriate palms. I could offer so many examples of everyday, every situation corruption but will limit it to one. Chiclayo is the fourth largest city in Peru with a population of about 224,000. The long-time mayor was up for reelection and running on the platform of 'manos limpias' (clean hands). At a ceremony in city hall the mayor, along with the director of tourism presented Maribel and I with awards for service to the city. Less than a year later the mayor was charged with corruption; ran, was captured in a small village, and to this day is still in jail. The director of tourism and her daughter (the mayor's girlfriend) were also charged and jailed. Nobody was surprised. Everyone knew these people were corrupt when they were in office, and anyone who didn't know assumed it.
Peru has a history to the present day of deposing Presidents because of corruption, the deposing usually orchestrated by one or more of the opposing political parties, who are also corrupt. A few years ago Pedro Paul Kuczynski was elected President. Pedro was Peruvian and also a citizen of the United States. He had taught in the states and owned a farm near Madison Wisconsin. Everyone thought that they had finally elected an honest politician who would root out corruption. It wasn't long before an opposing political party charged him with corruption in past business dealings. Kuczynski denied the charges, but suspiciously quietly gave up his office and dropped out of site.
Up to this week Martin Vizcarra was the President of Peru. The Peruvian congress has removed him from office, because they don't like the way he has handled the coronavirus, and because of some corruption allegations from years ago when he was a regional governor. Most of the population believed him to be an honest man, and most people, including the local population, many expats living in Lima and me still believe in him. As of this writing thousands of Peruvians are protesting in the streets of Lima and other cities. The protests will do no good...they never do. Soon the unrest will quiet down to be replaced by grumbling and joking about the corrupt man who displaced Vizcarra. Actually, some of the elements of the Peruvian intrigue resemble the current political climate here. The difference as I see it is that America has just gotten rid of its worst President while Peru got rid of its best. Don't expect a Walmart in Peru anytime soon.
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