And the Winner Is

The 2005 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International is out and, once again, Latin America and the Caribbean score high.

The first regional place goes to Haiti, ranked in the position 155 out of 158.

Paraguay is the first finalist, ranked 144.

The third place goes to Venezuela in the position 130. Its performance has no match: It moved from position 114 to 130 in only one year. No bad for a relatively rich country.

On the other end we have Chile (21), Barbados (24) and Costa Rica (51) as the cleanest regional countries.

Acceptance speeches are expected this week. Winning government officials will engage in the annual ritual of lambasting Transparency International for lack of transparency.