“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

abuses “no doubt flowed from the impunity and ease with which they could complete all
their crimes until now.” The letter claimed, however, that “today” we can “count on a
Government wise enough to inspire the best in all the inhabitants of the Republic.” Its
officials at long last had committed to “justice and equality before the law.” To that end, the
“honorable vecinos” had come before local officials to denounce Lafitte as, “in the judgment
of these honorable, laborious and sensitive persons, a bad vecino . . . that lives and eats from
that of others.” Whereas in the past, “poor administrators had placed a wall of iron around
our desires” the vecinos truly believed a “felicitous dawn has now appeared for the inhabitants
of the countryside.” 43 They could obtain justice against criminals like Lafitte.
Officials promptly order Lafitte’s arrest on charges of cattle theft. After several
delays, Sañudo appeared before Arteagada to challenge the evidence against Lafitte. He
argued that “his client was innocent and moreover the victim of an outrageous libel
[calumnia].” 44 He argued that, today, these men “count on their own wrongs” in order to
seek justice. Echoing the vecinos, however, Sañudo concluded that under the new
administration “it is impossible that libel will triumph over truth and justice.” 45 Sañudo
further noted that many of the statements likely were coerced. He claimed a group of men
were “roaming the countryside from house to house in order to produce signatures.” 46
Arteagada faced a difficult decision. The letter from the vecinos represented the sole
evidence sustaining Lafitte’s arrest and imprisonment. None of the vecinos had offered sworn
statements or appeared in Salto’s tribunals to back up the allegations. Moreover, there was
at least circumstantial evidence that the charges against Lafitte represented an attempt by
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid., 37bis.
45 Ibid., 38.
46 Ibid.
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