ABSTRACT
These primitives in Lara don't easily comprehend the exigencies of the fisc, the caprice of our laws, the imbroglio of our regulations, they cannot concede in their childish intelligence that they must pay for the air they breathe, the right to live at an exorbitant rate — minimal in out eyes from the monetary point of view — but which for them represents an amount a hundred times inflated, almost a fortune. That we impose our laws upon them, and moreover, enforce them, fine, but that they are liable to have their heads removed for a light infraction such as contravening a customs arrêt on salt or tobacco, it seems that the men who adjudicate in courts as well as the executioners have exceeded their rights and have committed the most monstrous assassinations.
