Once, years ago, a high range politician from Madrid, Minister Of Justice of the socialist government, came to my city for a debate followed by dinner and I had to cover the information. I asked some questions during the discussion and wanted to go out of there as soon as possible.

I was concerned about some youngsters who were in jail because they didn’t want to go to the Army, which was then mandatory. But they didn’t allow me to ask.

When I was about to leave the place, they said that the Minister of Justice would have an informal meeting with the press at the end of the dinner. I was tired but I decided to wait to ask him what was he going to do with so many youngsters in Jail. We had 160 of them and our old jail had room for only 120 inmates, so it was crowded because there were many criminals before the anti-army activists arrived.

I was with other journalists from different media when the dinner finished and the politicians arrived obviously after having drink pretty much, each one holding a glass with some alcoholic beverage. All of them, men. They sat in a couch way too close to the female journalists (I avoided that embarrassing situación because I sat in a chair), and we began to talk.

A friend of mine and I made our questions about the activists in Jail. We wanted to know what measures would he take to solve the situation. Mr. Minister said simply that There was no problem because there were only 12 jailed, which was false and he knew it.

We knew there were 160 for sure. We had follow the trials and visited the jail. We explained the situation with our contrasted data, and he insisted bluntly in his lie.

Some of the other journalists believed him. Because he sounded convincing they were praising him saying how cool he was with that informal meeting.

I witnessed that night how the politicians simply lie and convince by the aplomb with which they talk and. The power they have along with other strategies.

FOWC: False