3 ideas
Morales rejects the death penalty because a quick death spares the killer. He wants Gómez to endure an empty life sentence with no contact, which is exactly what the courts failed to impose. To carry out that sentence, Morales must build his own life around the cell, feeding and guarding the killer for decades. Private vengeance that aims to be proportionate to endless grief ends up imprisoning the avenger as fully as the offender.
Chaparro finds his suspect by studying old photographs of Liliana. In group shots, one man is always looking at her rather than at the camera or the moment. A fixed, repeated gaze is evidence that words and alibis can hide. The same idea applies to Chaparro himself, whose unspoken love for his superior Irene is legible in his eyes long before he admits it.
When a state turns to extralegal political violence, a convicted murderer stops being a liability and becomes a useful instrument. His readiness for brutality is exactly what the new order needs. Legal outcomes are then determined by patronage and usefulness rather than guilt, so a correct verdict gets undone administratively.