VIDEO
It sounds like absurd optimism: fighting corruption in Ukraine is “complicated, but it’s not desperate. It can be perfectly fixed.” But those are the words of lawyer Carlos Castresana, public prosecutor of the Spanish Supreme Court and expert on combating entrenched graft.
Chalk it up, perhaps, to Castresana’s experience. He has seen worse. In 2007, he arrived in Guatemala as the United Nations-appointed “Commissioner Against Impunity” in the country. Back then, the Central American country was a place where getting away with murder was exceedingly easy and violent criminal groups had infiltrated the justice system. Only two of every hundred serious crimes were solved in Guatemala.
Castresana’s work there led to the prosecution of around 150 corrupt officials, including former President Alfonso Portillo. Seven particularly high profile convictions under Castresana’s watch helped to signal to the Guatemalan public that justice was possible.
Castresana has now been nominated to serve as an auditor of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine – a job he’s prepared to do if selected, he says.
Hromadske sat down with Castresana during his visit to Kyiv earlier this month to discuss fighting corruption, building public faith in reforms, and the lessons from Guatemala that can be applied to Ukraine.
