THE CIRCLE OF THE DEPRAVED: EPSTEIN AND HIS ELITES

 

The United States Department of Justice recently released over 3 million pages of documents, two thousand videos, and 180,000 images related to the Jeffrey Epstein case—the pedophile and multimillionaire financier who trafficked underage minors and, for years, wove a web of influence that reached politicians, artists, intellectuals, business leaders, and high-prestige international circles. They all seemed to be part of the elites that cultivated “unbridled sex vices.”

These documents reveal the magnitude of the network surrounding this criminal, who suddenly appeared dead in 2019. Epstein’s lists include party guests, emails with public figures, and social correspondence records that place the “global elite” very close to a man convicted of child abuse. However, Epstein's “friends” never said anything about what was openly known as excesses in private orgies.

What is exposed in various documents is not simply an isolated case of corruption, but a pattern of relationships that normalizes impunity and the degeneration of those who consider themselves “untouchable.” Multimillionaire businessmen, high-ranking politicians, and famous figures appear in contexts ranging from event invitations to contact lists for potential sexual encounters. Here, we are not talking about fanciful conspiracies, but dense networks that, while not always involving direct crimes, reveal how power circles interconnected to cultivate their own leisure, indifferent to the suffering their hidden practices concealed.

The documents contain references to Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Elon Musk, Noam Chomsky, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, though these mentions do not always constitute proof of their participation in sexual crimes. The issues even extend to Latin America, as the documents also include Mexican personalities—though, very importantly, appearing in these files does not imply guilt or judicial accusation.

Among the names reported by the media are former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, mentioned in emails as part of an elite gathering. Also featured are former Presidents Ernesto Zedillo and Felipe Calderón, referenced in documents about international events. Mexican businessmen like Ricardo Salinas Pliego and Carlos Slim are named in “social correspondence.”

It is important to emphasize that being listed in a document does not mean being implicated in a criminal network. Many messages are incidental, and authorities have stated that these mentions do not constitute proof of having committed a crime. In any case, beyond Mexico, there is a “global phenomenon,” as the files show Epstein’s consecutive attempts to weave relationships with high political and business circles in Europe and the United States, including exchanges that evidence how his transnational influences operated.

The documents have also faced criticism because many names are partially redacted or lack clear context, leaving a taste of “persistent impunity.” Despite the enormous volume, no new charges have been filed against prominent figures, while many women abused in the sexual gatherings still have not obtained justice. The women were reduced to mere young subjects dominated by power, portrayed as wayward beings, and ultimately discredited.

This not only reveals institutional failures but a deeper truth: elites that concentrate wealth and prestige often operate in societies where power functions above ethics, and the ability to influence prevails over moral responsibility. Beyond the names and their connections, something strikes the public conscience: the pursuit of sexual pleasure as a vain and destructive end.

In the parties and contacts with minors—which are objectively repugnant and criminal—a question emerges: what motivates an apparently powerful elite if not the obsessive pursuit of excess, selfish gratification, and a banality that degrades everything? Orgasms alone: a goal so fleeting, absurd, and, in many cases, clearly highlighted as crimes. There is even talk of Bill Gates, who apparently contracted a disease and tried to hide the problem from his wife, exchanging messages of discretion with Epstein.

This extreme recalls what the American sociologist Charles Wright Mills anticipated in his well-known essay The Power Elite. Higher circles tend to be “incompetent,” comfortable with their inherited privileges, lacking moral vision or commitment to anything beyond their instincts and immediate satisfactions.

This is not about denouncing yet another scandal. It is about understanding the deep logic of an elite that prioritizes its own pleasure over dignity and justice. It is about demystifying the aura of greatness that power summits usually project and recognizing that when money and influence are not accompanied by ethics and responsibility, the result is not greatness but emptiness, hypocrisy, and social disintegration. This is something that new elite generations must not imitate, because a culture of unscrupulous privilege not only exploits the most vulnerable but disintegrates the foundations of any society aspiring to human dignity.

Following Wright Mills, the problem with elites is not only their incompetence but something worse: the “sterility” of their power. They occupy positions, concentrate resources, inherit privileges, and control global agendas, but they no longer produce relevant public goods, transformative ideas, or ethical examples. Power becomes an inherited routine, not a creative responsibility. Historical opportunities—technological, health-related, educational—dissipate into a self-complacent life, where the elite manages its status without contributing anything valuable to society. Instead of leadership, there is inertia; instead of vision, reproduction of privilege; instead of merit, there is surname, depravity, and shielding against sexual crimes.

The case of Bill Gates shows more complications. He was presented for years as a sort of moral engineer of the world, capable of “anticipating” pandemics and guiding global health, but his influence ended wrapped in contradictions, failures, and dark zones that eroded that image of a transcendental elite. Beyond donations or philanthropic speeches that Gates usually feigns, what remains is the sensation of an elite that plays at being god, without accountability, incapable of generating clear results for humanity. Worse still, when Epstein’s files reveal messages exposing a life guided by banal impulses (infamous sex) and personal cover-ups. Mills was right: these elites not only govern poorly but are no longer up to the task, not even of their own promises, and their legacy reduces to a mix of power without ethics, influence without responsibility, and pleasure without meaning. When they commit crimes, they only want to escape. A cowardice that makes their behaviors even more depraved.