Manuel Marlasca: “Daniel Sancho will be sentenced to 15 or 20 years in prison and in six months no one will remember him”

Neither superheroes nor supervillains. The world is made of another paste, a softer, slippery, gray one. And on it sits the new book of Manuel Marlasca (Madrid, 1967), You dance and I shoot (Destiny). With six publications of true crime behind him, the renowned crime journalist debuts in the novel with a fictional story that, however, delves into something as true as the contradictions of human beings. To do this, he sneaks into Group

“I have a bit of imposter syndrome,” confesses the presenter, “excited” to share space in bookstores with writers and friends he admires, like Lorenzo Silva. It is his first time at the controls of a story full of names and problems that were first small ideas written down in his Moleskine notebook. However, to the imaginative work he added research work: “I researched issues that I knew superficially, such as the functioning of new technologies within organized crime, which uses communication techniques undetectable by the Police. It’s awful”.

“I was interested in portraying this part of corruption,” he says about an organization “capable of infecting any layer of society and, of course, the State Security Forces and Bodies.” In this sense, he emphasizes that agents are people with wounds and scars who sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong. In other words: You dance and I shoot “It is not a detective novel, but about police officers”. “Agents are not cyborgs,” she maintains. And, without going any further, he points to the attitude of citizens towards the security forces: “There are no gray areas. You are in one trench or another. The Police have the legitimate use of violence, and if they dissolve the protesters of Ferraz, for some they are heroes and, for others, puppets of the State.”

Marlasca has been an events reporter since 1988. He has worked in written media, radio and television, and is in charge of spaces such as Territorio negro, on Onda Cero, and Expediente Marlasca, in TardeAR (Telecinco). He did not come to journalism by chance, since, influenced by his father and his grandfather, he was always clear about his vocation. However, “circumstances” led him to his current specialty. Today, he knows that he handles “very delicate raw materials.” “The chronicle of events is a subject that talks about pain, prison, deaths and torn families. We talk to people at the worst moment of their lives, and that must be treated tactfully. We cannot re-victimize victims. And we journalists have that extra responsibility. “Events are something that no one wants to do, but that everyone has an opinion about.”

What about sensationalism? “The formula to avoid falling into it is to understand that we make information and not spectacle”, he points out, before bringing up one of the most current media cases, the trial against chef Daniel Sancho, son of actor Rodolfo Sancho, for the murder of surgeon Edwin Arrieta in Thailand last summer. The sentence is expected to be announced on August 29. “They will sentence him to 15 or 20 years in prison”, he calculates, “but in six months no one will care or remember him.” That said, a smiling Marlasca encourages us to write down another date on the calendar, closer and friendlier. “On June 8, 9, 15 and 16 I will be signing at the Madrid Book Fair.” It is noted.