THE FIRST REHEARSAL: A DEFAULT DISMANTLED IN HOURS

The word "in default" (rebelde) has a precise meaning in law: one who evades justice, who cannot be found. On 15 March 2017, the proceedings declared Apolozan in default (order under art. 784.4 of the Criminal Procedure Act; the record of the cycle appears in the case file, DOC-0146, p. 29). On that premise an arrest warrant was issued.

In September 2017 the warrant was executed — and there it became clear what it was made of. Arrested on 23 September, the first judge to examine his situation set it aside immediately: the "defaulter" was hiding from no one. He was living his ordinary life, with a home and an activity, exactly where he always had. On 29 September the cycle was cancelled.

This matters for what it proves and for what it foretells. It proves that the premise of non-location did not survive the first contact with an impartial judge: it took only someone looking for the "default" to evaporate. And it foretells the method, because the machinery did not learn from the error — it perfected it. The next time it was activated, in 2018, it would no longer be a national warrant reviewable by the first duty court: it would be a European Arrest Warrant, with INTERPOL behind it.

When a false premise is dismantled and is nonetheless reused on a larger scale, it ceases to be an error. It becomes a choice.