10 June 2021
Prosecutors of hatred and submission
All the powerful, throughout the ages, have had justice under their feet. Surely, in the last century, Hitler and Stalin were the most notorious masters of justice, although surely that Trujillo, Somoza, Castro and other banana autocrats had it in our Latin America. Today Maduro, Ortega and Morales (from his Chapare[1] power) strut vaingloriously as prototypes for whom justice is their own, and which can be used to eliminate adversaries without having to kill them; locking them up until they rot is enough and looks less messy.
Among the most brutal totalitarianisms of the last century, when the victims were counted by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, were –undoubtedly– those of Hitler and Stalin. It was political hatred that kept them awake, but, perhaps more than hatred, [it was] fear. They dreaded even their shadow –more the Russian than the German– and for that very reason they distrusted the people who were close to them. They were permanently spied on by State Security, and as soon as they became a nuisance, they were passed on to the people’s justice system or shot. It goes without saying that those who were in the hands of the prosecutors ended their public life, because they had already set up a case and that could not be revoked even with the best legal arguments.
Among all this lower ranked “prosecuting”, there were untouchables, the subjects who had the entire trust of the power, who did not discern between good or bad, fair or unfair, when an order came from the supreme chief. Nazism had among its great scoundrels Judge Roland Freisler, later also in the office of prosecutor. And the Soviet Communist Party had Andrey Vyshinsky, a great actor in the purges that took place in Moscow in 1937 and 1938. For Vyshinsky, confession was the main proof of guilt, even if it was [obtained] through torture. Nothing had to be proved; instead, declarations had to be forced to hear what they wanted to hear. He imposed aggressive and rude interrogations to extract confessions.
However, Freisler, president of the People’s Court in times of Nazism, has been the judge whose worst memories are of defeated Germany. He enjoyed the trust and sympathy of the leaders who were closest to Hitler, and the Fuehrer himself was fond of him, according to historians. After the failure of von Stauffemberg’s attempt on Hitler in July 1944, fierce persecution against the regime’s enemies was unleashed. At least a hundred defendants passed through the hands of the robed Freisler, turned prosecutor. There was not enough rudeness or humiliation for those who were guilty of the attack. Great personalities, military and civilian, were forced to declare without belts, so that they would be permanently gripping their underwear or else their pants would fall to the ground. It was the best way to humiliate and hang the undesirables. A building collapsed on Freisler at the end of the war, as a result of the bombing, giving him his well-deserved end.
In Bolivia there is neither Hitler nor Freisler, but there are bosses in justice, those who finger-appoint mediocre strangers as robed and then stage a sham election to sanctify them. Therefore, justice is totally subject to power. Corrupted from top to bottom. Greedy for the defendant’s bribery or for forced extortion which is worse. Those who are summoned to testify, better bring their toothbrushes and blankets, because, surely, they will spend a long “preventive” imprisonment in the cells of San Pedro or Palmasola. We are living a terrible judicial ordeal, because there is no respect for anyone who is undesirable to the regime. A Minister of Justice is appointed who, due to so much lies and ignorance, is a source of ridicule. But his lies hurt society, they create confusion. They imprison former President Añez because they feel like it, out of sheer revenge, being scoundrels. And they do the same with those who have collaborated with her. No matter how responsible they are, the important thing is to get revenge for what they call a “coup”, which was just a well-deserved little peaceful push because Morales wanted to be a smartass blinded by his desire to stay in power eternally through fraud. That is the justice we have and the one that must be changed by punishing, in due course, those who administer it today.
[1] Chapare, (…) is a rural province in the northern region of Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia (…) In recent decades, the Chapare province has become a haven for illegal cultivation of the coca plant, which can be used to produce cocaine. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapare_Province. Visited on 14 June 2021.
* Translator’s note: All footnotes are introduced by the translator in order to help clarify unfamiliar terms.
Source: https://eldeber.com.bo/opinion/fiscales-del-odio-y-el-sometimiento_234829
