SUPRANATIONALITY
[The acid-tongued Robert Escarpit had the following comments to offer in his column in the May 10 issue of the Paris daily Le Monde on the way the Bolivian government is handling the case of Régis Debray.]
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If Régis Debray intervened in an illegal way in the internal affairs of Bolivia, it is normal for Bolivia to demand that he be held accountable for the infraction, but is this any reason to refuse to grant him the most elementary rights, the same rights which the Bolivian government, in its devotion to principles, doubtless grants -- at least one would like to believe so -- to its own citizens?
In a word, must the status of being a foreigner be considered to compound a political misdemeanor? A certain zenophobia inclines one in that direction, but reason goes against it, particularly in our century of collective security and supranationality.
Otherwise what penalties would be required against the CIA which for years -- sometimes without the knowledge of its partners, if they are to be believed, and for the good of humanity to believe the agency -- has been corrupting officials, buying influence, engaging in bribery and even crime, on a world scale?