I have spent very fertile days in Madrid, meeting E, who is absolutely committed to do something for Mexico (beyond T.S. Eliot et al). And then, 'coincidentally', Yaotzin suggested me to watch a powerful documentary film called "Presunto Culpable" (with English subtitles).
It is the story of an innocent guy put in jailed. Two middle-high-class young lawyers making a Ph.D. in Berkeley worked in the case for two years, shooting and participating actively in the defense. When you watch this film, you just cannot believe how infinite the reign of corruption and non-common sense is. All the evidence to declare this guy is there, on the table. There is no evidence at all to declare him guilty, and still he is in jail.
In Mexico, things work the other way round: you are not innocent until they proved you guilty, but you are guilty all the time, and it is your own job to prove yourself innocent.
The system really sucks!
And guess what? The documentary film was just banned out of theaters this week by one of these corrupted judges!
In this case, I can feel there is another reason for keeping this guy in jail: Mexico is a terribly racist society. Racism there is called 'clasism': racism among social classes. And of course, it has to do with the color of the skin. Risking a generalization: if you are white (güerito), you belong to a better social class than if you are tanned (moreno), being the indigenous people (indígenas) the lowest class. This has a geographical distribution: North, Center, South.
So, in this case, the Judge is moreno and feels provoked by the young lawyers and filmmakers, who are güeritos. And that is called Justice! What a shit!
1 comment:
Hallo Enrique,
may be you are angry. Look at your English. Lawyers work on a case (and there are other mistakes).
But you should get the facts right: The film was banned, because the brother of the victim (and a witness) felt that his rights are affected.
I haven’t watched that documentary and I don’t intent to do it. Do you really think a documentary filmed by the lawyers of one of the parties could be impartial and a documentary? Now instead of a judge the best production team is going to decide the outcome of case?
Stefan
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