The Lapaz Lawyer
4-'06

We get the word from Sr. Yee, 11:30 a.m. at his office, Wednesday. The word gets passed to Chayo, who meets us for breakfast at the Café Ole. Due to message on answering service, this was on Tuesday, we'd learn that the day before, Monday, he'd been a the Ministera Publico a good part of the day, him thinking that we arranged with Yee to meet there then. However, as he explains what was goin' on there, it was a fortuitous error.

He sets inta tellin' me that Robi was there with a lot of people from the ejido, the new chief, Prof. Manual, one of Chayo's other brothers and a bunch of others. He got to witness the action between El Juero, the delagado and Robi, and what he saw he said he didn't like. Robi was jumpin' mad, he claimed, about the recent wave of new stories to hit the Internet, especially the one about his candidate losing that most recent ejido election. Chayo's actually somewhat shook up by all this.

I remained confident that, perhaps with the aid of this new lawyer, I'd get to show my side of the story. I tapped the ever-growing stack of stuff held by strong clip on that board. "Relax, I advised him, "We're not gonna lose with the truth on our side."

He shakes this off like I'm some dumb schoolboy who simply doesn't get it. "Daveed, Daveed," he comes back, "you simply don't understand." He held his thumb and forefinger to make a circle, the common sign fer money here. "Here the truth doesn't count. Money is what counts, and Robi is spreading it around against you."

He flatly stated that we were gonna lose.

"You really believe that?" I responded.

"Si." We were gonna lose.

Well, I didn't think so.

"Vamos a ver," we both said as we headed off ta do battle.

Maybe we're a couple minutes early when we get ta Yee's place. Marcia and I have books and are prepared to wait. We're just settin' inta this waitin', though, and here comes this smallish gent, I'm thinkin' him as a local, walking up steps and into outer office. His dress is ultra casual, he's wearin' loafers without socks. I'm almost immediately sure he's there for some small matter that's gonna get in Yee's way. Then right behind him comes this knock-dead good-lookin' lady whose features are so exotic that....

Yee right away introduces us to our LaPaz lawyer, then to his wife. Without the waste of much time, Chayo, me, and these two lawyers are in inner office, us starting to get comfortable with this new actor almost immediately.

Not knowin' how sensitive he is about such things I'm gonna call him Luis. He almost immediately dismisses Robi's rubbish out of hand. He goes in-depth to explain what defamation of character is and is not. Him laughing at Robi's attempts. In lively and animated manner he spells out that using rumor, common knowledge, second er third hand information is all legit, and especially if it's acknowledged that that's what it is. I was actually surprised at longitude and latitude that he claimed there was here in Mexico. He got on the subject of me publishing from the States on the Internet, there was essentially no laws to cover this, and how tricky that would be for the courts there to handle. And, beside, he states that because of Immigration hearings in the U.S., politicians at the State level wouldn't want to play with throwing me out right now, anyway.

Yee and Chayo give him a brief rundown on what this is all about, "land," and what Robi's been up to within the local power structure.

Chayo tells this guy what he'd witnessed at the Ministera Publico on Monday, how Robi and that delagado tried to get Chayo to make his official declaration right there and then, him refusing to do anything without his lawyer.

"That's right!" Luis shouts. He asks Yee how we stand on these official declarations and Yee tells him that we've done nothing yet, 'cause of El Juero, that delagado. Luis tells Yee that this blond headed guy is full of it. We can give our declaration at any moment we chose to. In fact, we'd do that right now!

Another thing that he recommended is that I come to LaPaz and put an official notice in the paper, something that would effectively tie local officialdoms hands. "And in great big letters!" he stressed.

Yee at his computer, Luis behind his back dictating, they churn out two very brief statements that gives the opposition absolutely nothing. During this operation a smiling Chayo draws my attention and gives me a total thumbs up about this new force. "Muy bravo" he whispers approvingly. He didn't seem the least bit afraid of this thing. And now, neither was Chayo.

Our statements concocted, Chayo and me, Luis and Yee, we drive over to the Ministeria Publcio office, and essentially march in; Luis tellin' El Juero what we were there for and what we were gonna do.

Whew!

You should'a seen the sea change.

That delagado, recognizing Luis and obviously knowing his reputation, turned into this nicest of guys who couldn't wait to fulfill Luis' slightest wish. Then while the underling is typin' up Chayo's statement Luis comes back to talk with El Juero, buddy and pals like, it bein' highly obvious that they knew one another.

When Luis went back to sign Chayo's statement, here sets the humble delagado right in front of me, and I can't resist tellin' him that I've got all this info that I'd brought to show him, but now...he waves me off like it now made no difference. Yee catches me doing this and he holds up his finger to his lips.

Mission accomplished, we go back to Yee's office to discuss business. Whew! All I can tell ya is that legal talent of this magnitude don't come real cheap.

You should'a seen smile on Chayo's face when he cleared outta there.

Email: david@dondavidonbaja.com