His successor, General Manuel Jose Bonett, has gone back to the classics, telling a news-magazine that he felt he was living in the long-ago Athens of Aristophanes, where corrupt leaders took their countries to war to divert attention from troubles at home.
General Bonett repeated the message of military subordination firmly as he was sworn in, and, in case anyone had not noticed, Mr Samper stamped it in again at a ceremony on July 29th in which the armed forces acknowledged their new commander.