Coloniality of anti-corruption: Whiteness, disasters, and the US anti-corruption policies in Puerto Rico

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of ‘coloniality of anti-corruption’ to help situate and describe contemporary US anti-corruption policies aimed at Puerto Rico. The aim of the concept of coloniality of anti-corruption is to underscore corruption’s inextricable relationship to race, class, gender, and other colonial power relations. The article argues that US interventions with the Puerto Rican government, along with its distribution of disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane María (2017) and subsequent earthquakes (2020), are best understood against the backdrop of a long history of corruption narrative implemented by the US. This is a narrative that seeks to legitimate US’s colonial and capitalist expansion in Puerto Rico. To demonstrate this, the article explores the application of anti-corruption narratives by the Trump administration to justify its disaster relief policies for Puerto Rico. In particular, the article focuses on Trump’s tweets describing Puerto Rican politicians as ‘corrupt’ and Puerto Rico as ‘geography of fraud.’ In doing so, the article provides a theoretical account of the uses of corruption and anti-corruption discourses to justify colonial and capitalist’s global endeavors. It also illustrates how anti-corruption policies reproduce the idea of the non-white other as the corrupt subject and denotes the humanitarian consequences of such policies.

Anticorruption Markets: Law, Public Procurement, and the Colonial Regime of Permission in Puerto Rico

“…It aimed to consolidate existing anticorruption laws while strengthening tools to combat corruption and protect whistleblowers. The law was proposed by the executive branch and the administration of Ricardo Rossello to allow PR to access US recovery funds following hurricane María (Atiles, 2023a). It also helped create a series of opportunities for consultancy and law firms, and marketing companies to capitalized on the develop, and implementation of the new law and its anticorruption policies.…”

“…Anticorruption reasserts global north power and colonial logic on the global south. In my own work, I have shown how colonial anticorruption narratives have mutated together with global capitalist dynamics and economic policies, becoming part of the hegemonic global economic system, institutionalized by the history of colonization, and sustained by the structural forces of capitalism (Atiles 2023a, 2023b). Corruption has been key to the historical transformation of the global capitalist framework, from colonialism to neoliberal globalization.…”

“…In recent years PR has been portrayed as one of the most corrupt jurisdictions in the US (Atiles, 2022; 2023a). These corruption allegations have coincided with a multilayered political, financial, economic, and humanitarian crisis in PR since 2006.…”

“…For instance, the Pedro Pierluisi administration (2020-present), has issued anticorruption and transparency executive orders, declaring a war against corruption , and promoting collaboration between local and federal law enforcement agencies, 8 establish guidelines for transparency, and enforcing accountability in public procurement. 9 However, because these laws were aimed at making PR eligible for US recovery funds, they were weak and seldom enforced (Atiles, 2023b). But they successfully fostered an anticorruption market, as discussed below.…”

“…Establishes that “the Registry shall only apply to persons who have been convicted of the commission of the offense as co-perpetrator with a public official, whether or not they are public officials”. This is important, since many of those that have been included in the Registry are not necessarily public employees (Atiles, 2023b).…”