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MARCHING POWDER

stairs and swooped on us from both directions. They ignored Julián and came straight for me.

‘Don’t move! Stay right where you are.’

I did as I was told and stayed calm. I had suspected that something like this might happen, which was why I had brought Julián along as a witness.

Two of the police held me while the others knocked on the Velascos’ door. At first they wouldn’t come out, but when the police threatened to kick it in, they opened up. The police told Julián to stand back and me to accompany them inside to witness them searching the room, but I refused.

‘What for? It’s not my room. I’m from a different section.’

‘What are you doing here, then?’

‘Nothing. I’m here with my delegate,’ I said pointing to Julián. The police hadn’t reckoned on him being there and were a bit confused as to what to do. They told Julián to leave, but he said he had to stay as a witness.

‘What are you doing out of your section?’ they asked me again.
I repeated my answer of before. I didn’t want to mention that I was about to visit the Velascos or that they owed me money. It was best not to give the police any information to go on, even if it was completely legitimate and explained everything, because they would find some way of twisting your words.

Julián was ordered to leave and, despite my protests, the police made me follow them into the room. Jose Luis and Jorge Velasco were inside with a third inmate I didn’t know. None of them would meet my eye. We all watched as the cops turned things over and pulled their possessions apart.

‘What’s this?’ asked one of the policemen, who was standing at the bookshelf unravelling a poster that he had slid out of a cylindrical container. Inside was a long, thin plastic bag containing cocaine. All the police looked at me.

‘It’s not mine. This isn’t my room.’ I pointed at the Velascos. ‘Ask them!’

The police took us all outside to question us separately. They had nothing on me but that didn’t stop them from trying to get a bribe. They assumed that, because of the tours and because I was a foreigner, I was a millionaire. They wanted two thousand dollars. Normally,

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