Luis Quintero was a thief and an enemy of the people.
Exactly how he came to be in power is, to be perfectly frank and, admittedly, somewhat pessimistic, largely a question like most others - in short, completely irrelevant.
The fact of the matter is that he was in charge, and that, furthermore, he had no plans - short-term, at least - to relinquish this power.
To give you a thorough and unabridged idea of what was going on, however, I can divulge that his rise to power was as insidious and as reprehensible as his intentions.
You see; Luis Quintero planned to get rich off the backs of that nebulous, near-abstract pack known collectively as "the people." And get rich he did - thumbscrews, torture, inflated taxes, the rack, etc, were all employed without restraint to make Luis Quintero richer and the people poorer.
It occurred to the people many times that they were being exploited,
Ha! As if the way they were being treated deserves so mild a verb as "exploited!"
unfortunately, the people, partly out of a twisted sense of honour, partly out of cowardice, did nothing to save themselves.
They had hope, though, never mind that! Not a day went by where there wasn't a mention of the great, valorous, daring warrior who would surely arrive to save them all and depose the vile, villainous Luis Quintero.
And so, with this bizarre and unsound hope in their hearts, the people sat around and waited for a hero that would never come. Serves the fuckers right, really.
we live in dead cities, and the streets are gray
Written on Wednesday, 6 April 2005