“…Consequently, the economic inequalities that resulted from the increased corruption pushed some countries to the political extremes, such as Venezuela and Bolivia. Both countries elected populist politicians, respectively, in 1998 and 2006, each of which came to power promising to rid corruption in their respective countries (Gates, 2010;Gingerich, 2010). As corruption and state capture, along with the economic inequalities they fomented, continued to plague the region, citizens continued to elect populists who promised to fight against corruption, such as Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil (Hunter and Power, 2019) and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador (Mel endez-S anchez, 2021).…”