Uruguay and Chile remain the leaders in transparency in Latin America, while Venezuela and Paraguay are still perceived as the most corrupt countries, according to a report released today by the German NGO Transparency International (TI).

The 2012 edition of the traditional Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of TI offers a regional ranking with few variations from the reports of the last two years, but it comes with a warning.

"The region came out well from the global crisis. Their economic model gives good macroeconomic performance, but does not translate into improved quality of life for its citizens. Latin America is the most violent region, where there is greater inequality," said to EFE Alejandro Salas, the director of TI for the Americas.

In his view, this is a "wake up call" for the countries of the area, he suggested more "leadership" of politicians and businessmen and greater citizen awareness that "democracy is not just elections."

Also, he highlighted that this year only four out of the 20 Latin American countries achieved 50 or more points out of a maximum of 100 (low corruption), although this result is slightly higher than last year’s, which was passed only by three.

Topping this transparency table is Chile (72 points), Uruguay (72), Puerto Rico (63) and Costa Rica (54), followed by Cuba (48), Brazil (43) and Salvador (38).

Regarding this, Salas the first two not to feel "satisfied" with the result and to look at "other parts of the world" with higher levels of transparency.

At the end of the list, and perceived as the most corrupt in the region, are Venezuela (19 points), Paraguay (25), Honduras (28), Nicaragua (29) and Ecuador (32).

Between them, in order of decreasing transparency, appear in this ranking of TI El Salvador (38), Panama (38), Peru (38), Colombia (36), Argentina (35), Bolivia (34), Mexico (34), Guatemala (33) and Dominican Republic (32).

Regarding Colombia, Salas said that their sources perceived "greater corruption" in the country and warned of the need to be an urgent and exemplary implementation of the anti-corruption laws and of access to information.

Bolivia, by contrast, according to the director of TI for the Americas, had a "slight improvement" by applying "reforms" and "structural changes", and also due to the severity when resolving the corruption scandal in which there was a cabinet minister involved.

Compared to last year, most Latin American countries analyzed maintained their relative position, but improved their absolute score, something more related to a "change in methodology" of the study, according to Salas.

Globally, Somalia (8 points), North Korea (8) Afghanistan (8), Sudan (13) and Myanmar (Burma) (15) are the most corrupt countries, whereas Denmark (90) Finland (90), New Zealand (90), Sweden (88) and Singapore (87), are the least affected by such practices.

In comparison, Spain (65 points) is in the thirtieth position, with hardly any changes from the previous year's survey.

TI, a global reference in the analysis of transparency, warns in this report that only a third of the 176 countries studied actually pass the exam, even though the citizen outcry against these practices has gained momentum around the world following the Arab Spring.

"After a year during which the focus has been on corruption, we hope governments will take a stronger stance against the abuse of power. The results of the CPI show that societies continue to pay the high cost of corruption," said in a statement the president of TI, Huguette Labelle.

The CPI is produced each year since 1995 from different studies and surveys on perceived levels of corruption in the public sector of different countries.