Una vida a larga distancia

The memories of Juan Alberto Belloch: an exceptional man immersed in extraordinary times. The influence of his mother -a woman of character ahead of her time- and of his father -a liberal intellectual of republican lineage- forged in Juan Alberto Belloch the desire for radical independence, where service to his country was always above interests. personal or partisan fights: first as a judge -one of the youngest of the nascent democracy- and later at the head of the ministries of Justice and Interior, which he held in the last governments of Felipe González, without ever having been a member of the PSOE. From his successive responsibilities, he championed a way of understanding politics based on a deep sense of justice. He dealt with the worst years of terrorism from the Provincial Court of Bilbao, modernized the judicial institution as Member of the CGPJ, successfully addressed reforms such as the Jury Law and had to face notorious scandals inherited by his ministry such as the escape and capture of Luis Roldán or the wiretapping of CESID, while a fierce struggle for power was unleashed around him, fueled by the journalistic coalition dubbed the "crime syndicate." Overcoming the noise and fury of González's last legislature, he gave himself body and soul to local politics and managed to bring the 2008 Universal Exposition to Zaragoza, a brilliant milestone in the city of which he was mayor for more than a decade.