Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Police
As seen above, the police appear both useless and dishonest, and perhaps this is why
they use brutality to solve cases and catch criminals. The application of violence was
justified by the authorities giving reasons of security and stability, as discussed in
chapter two. But relating the abuse to incompetence is a safe way to discuss the topic
without linking it to the political authorities. Police have neither ethical codes nor
respect for the citizens. They can detain anyone without needing evidence or an arrest
warrant, and they can even use violence to take someone into custody. In an episode of
La Familia Burrón, Ruperto Tacuche is jailed because the factory in which he works is
robbed, and the owner and the authorities know about his criminal past even when there
is no evidence to inculpate him, and despite the fact that Ruperto has abandoned his
criminal activities because of his love for Bella Bellota, although only the reader knows
that. But since he appears to be the most obvious culprit, then no further investigation
seems necessary. But, as we will see, the police tortured their suspects to extract
confessions, even from innocent people, as we will see.
In the episode in which Ruperto is accused of robbing a jewellery shop, he is
interrogated by police investigators who in fact are referred to in the caption as
‘Ruperto’s tyrants’. 191 There is good reason to refer to them that way, as we see from
the severe punishment that Ruperto suffers from them in order to make him confess. He
is questioned for hours under powerful lights, and a group of policemen beat him up.
But because he does not say who his accomplices were, because he did not commit the
crime, one of the investigators threatens him: ‘Te vamos a dar una última oportunidad,
si no la aprovechas, te haremos hablar de otra forma’. 192 This is a reference to the use of
191 ‘Ruperto se encuentra frente a sus verdugos, que diga, frente a los investigadores’, La Familia Burrón,
17164, p. 11.
192 La Familia Burrón, 17164, p. 13.
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