Democracy Dies in Darkness

A pandemic of corruption: $40 masks, questionable contracts, rice-stealing bureaucrats mar coronavirus response

April 26, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
Soldiers carry bags of food to distribute during a government-ordered quarantine Thursday in a slum in Bogotá, Colombia. (Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images)

[Lea en español]

When officials in his home state began giving food boxes to families hit by Colombia’s coronavirus lockdown, lawmaker Ricardo Quintero was struck by the exorbitant prices being paid to the vendors. So he armed himself with pictures of the coffee, pasta and other goods and went down to his local grocery store.