Absurdities and Abuses

Throughout more than five months of a health crisis, the relationship between the Government and citizens has been difficult, uncertain and complicated. At first, a blank check was issued to the authorities to articulate an organized response, in the face of an unknown enemy. As the pandemic took over the entire public agenda, institutional responses were fragmented, sometimes making a verbal statement more important than a degree, or a tweet that determined the scope of a legal norm.

Public security agents were turned into interpreters of arbitrary norms and an authoritarian attitude of the Government. If citizens behaved “well”, there was more flexibility; otherwise, the measurements were tightened.

This normative infantilism made the sanitary restrictions become monarchical prerogatives loaded with absurdities and abuses. Of course, the State has the obligation to protect the health of citizens, but in the name of this obligation, a tyranny of ridicule and arbitrariness cannot be erected. Palliative advertisements cannot cover up this reality.LA PRENSA, Aug. 26