'Death in León': "Here a bug died": new keys to the murder of Isabel Carrasco in an HBO documentary | TV

Isabel Carrasco He was not the highest authority in the province of León. It was the power in León. A way to administer it, a way of granting and denying favors, a style of condemning the dissenter or the disobedient within the limits of its territory, the Diputación. Isabel Carrasco exercised politics in a men's environment and not only did he survive all his conspiracies but he silenced all discrepancies by planting something resembling terror. I was not a charismatic character, I was not gifted with people, I did not have an easy verb, I was not empathic or populist. He was implacable.

During his funeral there were no tears among his fellow believers. There was no duel in León, in spite of his violent, unexpected, unprecedented death. At midday on May 12, 2014, a middle-aged housewife, Monserrat González, waited for her at the door of her home and followed his footsteps, short and fast, while crossing the narrow bridge that crosses the river Bernesga, on the way to the seat of the Popular Party, alone, unescorted, carefree the president, what she was going to fear, when the woman extracted a pistol from her bag and unloaded three shots in her back that caused her death in the act. It was not a terrorist attack, it was known with certainty a few hours later, but a domestic crime, a long-fed revenge, a strictly personal way of exercising justice.

Death in León was originally a documentary in four chapters that portrays this episode, from a plot thread, the trial held in the city to the three defendants. Now HBO Spain has returned to bet on the work of director Justin Webster, who delves into the case of the murder of Carrasco in a new documentary that opens this Friday: Death in León. Case closed. Montserrat was the executor of the crime, in the role of worried mother, anguished because the health and the future of her daughter Triana it had been broken from the moment it was expelled from the environment of the president, for whom she worked, who enjoyed favors towards a promising future, no matter that opposition was rigged to enjoy the status of civil servant for life. But that favor went awry and Triana's brilliant career collapsed: nobody would give her a job, nobody who did not want to contradict the president's orders. That was the power of Isabel Carrasco. And there was a third character, Triana's close friend, Raquel Gago, a municipal policewoman, accused of complicity because without apparent explanation she was close to the scene and the murder gun was deposited in his private vehicle. All three were condemned by the jury.

Death in León It portrays the twists and turns of a trial that does not admit doubts about the details of the execution of the crime, (there was even an eyewitness, a retired commissar for auction), but goes further. It portrays some gaps in an apparently simple police investigation, some contradictions and, as the series progresses, some unforgivable oversights. The series elaborates a thesis: there was no intention to clarify all aspects of the murder. Among other things, because the executor, Montserrat González, did not show the slightest regret. He said it coldly and dispassionately before the judge: "I do not regret it." He left for granted that, under the same conditions, he would do it again. And with the same serenity with which he exercised his justice, he accepted his sentence.

The series leaves a question without answering: how it is possible that it was not mentioned to declare, or not even included in the summary, that there was a fourth person with whom Triana, the daughter, knowing of the intentions of her mother, established telephone communication for almost 300 times in the months before the murder. A person who spoke with Triana the day before the crime, even the same day twice for more than an hour. That person, whose phone, both mobile and the landline of his office, is included in a call log of the telephone company. That man in the midst of a work of women, is a high-ranking official of the presidency of Castilla-León. This is how the series ends, as a thriller that leaves us in suspense wishing that they film the second season.

The series now turned into film and the research promoted by its director, Justin Webster (Six Dreams, 2018; The end of ETA, 2015; Gabo, the creation of Gabriel García Márquez, 2015; I will be killed, 2013), goes back but tries to advance on the facts and, also, on the corrupt style of exercising the power of Isabel Carrasco. Try to add all the arguments that led Montserrat González to exercise his particular desire for divine justice, perhaps the same arguments that explain how it could be that someone painted on the scene of the crime, "Here died a bug." For some reasons, there were no tears at the funeral of Isabel Carrasco.

Two police officers from Burgos

Death in León portrays side aspects that will surprise the viewer. One is the opinions about the deceased president and her style of governing: only local journalists speak and the natural opponent of Carrasco, the veteran Matías Llorente, but there are no speeches by his co-religionists. Two, the police authorities decided to move León to two policemen from Burgos to ensure the independence of the investigation with the excuse that Montserrat was married, although they did not share a place of residence, with the Commissioner of Astorga. She was a policewoman's wife. And these two policemen carry out some actions of dubious legality, all leading to a certain quick clarification of the facts: there was the executioner, her gun, her daughter and her daughter's friend. Nothing more was needed. Case closed. Three: And the calls? Case closed. And the adviser of the presidency of Castilla-León? Case closed. Too much interest that the crime had no political bias.