Crime is the norm, not the exception, starting with the government and trickling down to the people.
It is the wrong culture: "If higher ups cheat to get ahead and get away with it, why shouldn't I?".
Result: scaled up crime - corruption, tax evasion, robbing, slacking, etc.
It's incredible how similar Latin American corruption is across countries, I feel that every time I met another Latin American here in Europe/Sweden there's this instantaneous bond on how fucked up our governments (and everyday corruption) are.
I decided to leave and believe it's been the best thing I've ever done for my life, I miss the people I love but I don't miss life back there.
Catholic vs. protestant culture.
“Culture is religion externalized.” - Douglas Phillips
Ex: "do not steal" is a tenet on both, but it is irrelevant if not obeyed from a personal to an institutional level. Scaled up and in aggregate, you have a country's culture. Not working is a way of "stealing your neighbor's labor"
But now we may have an emerging problem in the US, the breakdown of Protestant values:
I agree with the starting with the government but I am lost when you blame the people (except for obvious crimes): literally there is not law in Argentina, tax evasion is not a crime because it is impossible to have a business without evading taxes (a friend told me) because the system is a trap where everyone could be attacked by the force of law based on ambiguous arguments.
And in Argentina is easy to bribe judges and move the "law" to the direction you want, more if you are powerful.