Mr. Ospina is a cautious, sharp, and foresighted man who seems to have an in-depth understanding of the nature of the people in his service. His ministers are men he trusts completely, and no one can imagine that they would commit sins against his friendship, whether in words or thoughts. The palace chef, if the palace has only one chef, must be a public servant with unwavering ideological beliefs, carefully preparing dishes that will serve as high-nutritional-value agents in the primary digestion of the State, which should be good and trouble-free. Furthermore, given that even in the palace kitchen, malicious slander from the opposition secretly lurks, there will be an honest taster at the table of the presidents. If all this happens with the ministers, the chef, and the elevator operator, how much more with the barber, the only mortal voter who has the democratic freedom to touch the president's chin with the sharp metal of a razor blade;
On the other hand, who could this influential aristocrat be, to whom Mr. Ospina trusts the worries of the previous night every morning, to whom he narrates, with meticulous thoroughness, the plot of each nightmare, and who is, after all, an effective advisor, as every respectable barber should be? Often, the fate of a democracy depends more on a single barber than on all its leaders, just as, in most cases – according to the poet – the fate of geniuses depends on the midwife. Mr. Ospina knows this, and perhaps that is why, before going out to inaugurate the direct telephone connection between Bogotá and Medellín, the head of state, with closed eyes and stretched legs, surrendered to the pleasure of feeling very close to his jugular vein the cold and ironic contact of the blade, while all the complex problems he would need to solve during the day passed through his mind in a crowded parade.
