From Mexico to Argentina, corruption has been a major problem in the countries of the Americas that were once Spanish colonies. Since Spanish rule and culture are the main characteristics that they had in common, I imagine their shared tendency toward corruption has some causal relationship to these characteristics rather than being a mere coincidence, is that correct?
If such is the case, why do the monumental levels of corruption that have long characterized Latin American countries seem to be absent from present-day Spain (or Spain in the 1990s, to avoid breaking the twenty-year rule)? Is it a result of an old Spanish cultural trait that survived in Spain's former colonies but died out in the motherland, or something else?
From Mexico to Argentina, corruption has been a major problem in the countries of the Americas that were once Spanish colonies. Since Spanish rule and culture are the main characteristics that they had in common, I imagine their shared tendency toward corruption has some causal relationship to these characteristics rather than being a mere coincidence, is that correct?
I suspect the difficulty you're encountering with getting an answer to this question is that your fundamental premise is not correct. For one, all the nations of South America and Mesoamerica are not former Spanish colonies (Brazil was a Portuguese colony, Suriname was a Dutch colony, Guyana was a British colony, French Guiana is an overseas department of France, etc.) For two, the political corruption or instability is not necessarily an inheritance of Spanish colonial influence.
I don't want to delve into speculation here, but if you compare and contrast the countries of South America with other former colonial nations in other parts of the world - Africa, Asia, etc. - there are some broad similarities to consider. The first is that, they are all former colonial states; their independence involved a disruption in the local government. Second, they are all relatively young, and national identities and cultures take time to develop. Finally, all of the states, to various degrees, have been interfered with during their development by various foreign powers, adventurers, local rebellions and revolutions, etc. with some of those conflicts ongoing - all of which contribute to destabilization and difficulty in forming sustainable government.
So I would submit that the widespread "corruption" you're talking about probably does not derive directly from a Spanish cultural or government precedent (although anybody more familiar with colonialism and postcolonialism in Latin America, feel free to jump me on that one), and is more a reflection of the widespread political instability in those young nations, and their troubles developing a culture of responsible government.
You might attract more attention (and a better answer) if you narrow down the scope of the question to a single nation or period - for example, something along the lines of "What has led to the widespread government corruption in Mexico in the 20th century?" or something along those lines.