The 21^st century was accompanied by fear, first of all of the terrorist threat, then of losing one’s job, of losing one’s traditional family values, and also of the weakness of the state. We live in societies of fear, a feeling that serves to win elections in the United Kingdom, the United States or Colombia, and is an excuse for some governments to backtrack on the recognition of human rights and their guarantees.

If the unifying factor of the peoples is trust, fear causes the opposite effect, division, insecurity, suspicion, and many take advantage of these weaknesses in their electoral speeches and when they come to power they govern by sowing fear. Now the West lives in a democracy of fear.

The Greece of the 4^th century BC is characterized by the crisis generated by deep social discords, increased by particular interests, it was a time of political decadence provoked by the commodification of society; Fioravanti said to this respect:

The prevailing fear, from which all this reflection is based, is that of the fundamental stasis concept with which a condition is indicated within which social and political conflict, animated by a growing faction spirit, increasingly linked to the struggle between rich and poor, tends to assume radical characteristics, which make it impossible to resolve within existing and well-known political structures (Constitution: From Antiquity to the present day. P. 16. Editorial Trotta, 2001).

It seems that history is repeating itself, and like Plato or Aristotle and with the intention of avoiding falling into stasis, we must ask ourselves about our forms of government and our rulers. We must reflect on how we have organized societies, the values that underpin them and the mistakes we have made. As academics and researchers we have a duty to denounce what is socially, legally, and politically wrong. Proposing solutions is our obligation.

We Latin Americans must address our major problems: inequity, poverty, corruption, violence, human rights deficits and their guarantees. Opinión Jurídica has this purpose, for this reason, we present to you number 33, composed of 11 articles by authors from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain and Mexico. They are high quality research, which has gone through a demanding process of construction and evaluation, and we are sure they will help us to understand the issues raised. They all agree on addressing social legal problems and seeing the law as an instrument for their solution. If fear overwhelms us, the law can help us overcome it.