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PREPARING FOR TRIAL

cells had all been confident that they could get me out, provided I had money. I now had that money, as much as they could ask for. I had had my emergency credit card sent over from Europe and, for a small fee, one of Ricardo’s trusted friends on the outside would pick it up and get cash advances from the teller machines down on the Prado whenever I called her. I never liked going into debt so I hadn’t used it before, but this was definitely an emergency.

Once she knew that I could pay her fees, Constanza Sanchez, one of the lawyers I had met after I was arrested, came to visit me several times a week to discuss my case. I paid her three thousand dollars up front. I knew it was a lot of money but I didn’t want to argue, as that might have induced her to work less hard on my case. Besides, at that stage I didn’t really care how much it cost me – I just wanted to get out of there.

Over the following weeks, Constanza visited me a few more times and we went over every detail of what had happened at the airport again and again. She then introduced me to another lawyer, who was apparently the best of the best Mil Ocho lawyers in town. I then had to explain the whole thing to him, even though Constanza had taken notes. Then she brought in another lawyer, who was also needed for my legal ‘team’, as she kept calling it. Initially, I was against the idea of having three lawyers and wanted to know why I needed a third if I already had ‘the best of the best’, but Constanza convinced me. Apart from adding extra knowledge and experience to my defence, the more lawyers I had, the better the impression I would make in court when I appeared before the judge, she said.

Although the colonel had cleverly let me pass through customs at the airport, making my charge ‘international trafficking’ rather than ‘possession’, my lawyers told me that my case was strong because I hadn’t signed a confession. Between them, they believed that they could create ‘reasonable doubt’ as to whether the drugs actually belonged to me. This would force the judge to find me inocente. The major problem we faced was the delays in the court system, which in some cases meant waits of up to four years before a trial even started. In the meantime, there was no presumption of innocence in Bolivia and no right to apply for bail in drug cases. Luckily, there were ways of fast-tracking the whole procedure by making applications to the court and using my lawyers’ contacts. But it would all cost money.