Marking the 100th anniversary of the Western hemisphere's last functioning island penal colony, Mexico's Islas Marias penitentiary welcomed about 90 new prisoners, the latest bid to revive an island facility that was once slated for closure.
ISLAS MARIAS, Mexico — Marking the 100th anniversary of the Western hemisphere's last functioning island penal colony, Mexico's Islas Marias penitentiary welcomed about 90 new prisoners, the latest bid to revive an island facility that was once slated for closure.
During the anniversary ceremony Thursday, Public Safety Secretary Martin Huerta pledged an additional US$9.1 million (euro7.2 million) in investments to increase security and preserve the environment on the island. Huerta plans to double the inmate population to about 1,200.
Inmates like 38-year-old Ruben Gonzalez are allowed to live in their own modest homes with few restrictions, and even bring their families to live with them on the island, which boasts a school, arts and crafts workshops and a musical group.
Gonzalez, with two years left to run on an eight-year sentence, runs a small store selling water, soft drinks and snacks on Maria Madre, the largest of the four Marias islands located 70 miles (112 kilometers) off Mexico's southern Pacific coast.
The revival of the penal colony in 2004 as an alternative for non-dangerous inmates angered conservationists like Ramon Ojeda Mestre, who spent several years helping direct the complicated clean-up at the islands, home to unique yellow-headed parrots and brown hummingbirds.
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Environmentalists had planned to reforest the land, withdraw non-native species, decrease the prison population and eventually turn the islands into a nature reserve. They say prisoners, with their hunting, farming and ranching activities, hurt local species.
Prisoners both help care for, and exploit, island resources. They acknowledge eating iguanas, for example, but say they wait until after the lizards have laid their eggs and guaranteed the next generation.
Juan Salazar, 43, said things have improved since he arrived in 1982.
"When I arrived, things were different. There was forced labor on the salt flats, punishment was harsh," said Salazar, who has another three years left to serve. "Now, things are much better."
Founded on May 12, 1905, Islas Marias was one of many such island penal colonies in the Americas at the time. Intended to be more self-sufficient and escape-proof, the most famous was the French prison on Guiana's Devil's Island, the subject of the 1973 movie "Papillon."
Since then, the others were gradually closed. The only other such penal colony in the Americas, Panama's Coiba Island, was closed and slated for conversion to a nature reserve in late 2004.
Source: Associated Press
