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San Pedro, donde todo es prohibido...y todo es posible.
The interesting thing about San Pedro, and the reason for which tourists go there, is that there are no guards inside the prison. Of course, there are guards outside and guarding the prison walls, but inside, the prisoners are left to govern themselves, which they do. To visit San Pedro prison you have to go to San Pedro square some time in the afternoon and kind of just hang around. After a while someone might come out of the prison and ask if you want to take the tour. I say 'might' because officially, the tour doesn't exist. Everybody knows about it but of course they can't officially advertise a prison tour. I went there with some friends from New Zealand that I had met in Brazil. The 4 of us met on the square where there was another group of gringos hanging around too. Sure enough some guy came out of the prison after a while and approached us. Everyone knows via word-of-mouth how much you have to pay and what the deal is. There were around 14 of us that did the tour that day, which we were told
is an unusually high number to be let on the same tour.
It cost 250 bolivianos each, which is about 25 quid, a lot of money to pay in Bolivia. You pay that money upfront but you need to have around another 60 bolivianos for when you're inside because you have to tip/pay off various people. It was pretty nerve-wracking before we went inside. I didn't really know what to expect, I just had images of season two's Prison Break in my head, which didn't help! We were told to put any cameras or phones down our trousers and stick together.
Once inside the prison everyone relaxed a bit more. San Pedro is like a town. There are streets and alleyways and different sections of the prison according to how much money you have. There is also a foreigners section. A prisoners' wife and children are able to come and live inside the prison if they wish. In San Pedro there are many families living inside the prison because the wife cannot afford to live and work and look after the children by herself. There are restaurants, a bakery, a barbers, a pool hall and a gym. We
were shown around San Pedro by an Argentinian guy called Oscar who ended up in prison after buying cocaine from someone who turned out to be a cop. He explained the history of the prison to us and how the system of having no guards works.
There are certain rules inside the prison that everyone abides to. For example, when a new inmate arrives who has harmed either women or children, they are taken to this certain courtyard and beaten/tortured for a while. IF they survive that, they are then taken down to a basement and beaten/tortured some more. IF they are able to survive that too then they are free to serve out their time in prison in peace. Mostly the prisoners ignore you as you walk around. Some are friendly and say hi. The children come up to you and ask you for sweets and chocolate.
60% of the prisoners of San Pedro are in there for drugs, like Oscar our guide. There was another prisoner that followed our group around who we were told was just there for our protection and to keep an eye out. When asked he told us that he was in
for murder. We were shown around various sections of the prison but not all. We went and had a drink in one of the restaurants, visited the kitchens, saw a miniature football/basketball court and taken to pay a visit to a model of a dragon that when touched and left a small donation, supposedly brings goodluck. Oscar explained to that cocaine is produced inside the prison although we weren't allowed to visit the place where they make it for obvious reasons.
At the end of the tour we were all taken up this narrow staircase somewhere within the jumbled alleyways and shown into a small room. First of all we each had to tip the guide Oscar, then whoever had brought in a camera had to leave money so that the guards could be payed off. It wasn't really an option as to whether you tip or not seeing as there was a guy serving life for murder guarding the only exit. Then, for the finale of the tour, we were offered to buy some of the cocaine that had been made inside the prison. Everyone was pretty unsure whether or not it was ok to try/buy it given that we were inside a prison. Oscar did point out the irony that he was inside prison for buying drugs from an under-cover policeman, but really heavily stressed the point that nothing bad would happen to any of us if we decided to buy it. A couple of people on the tour did try some right there and then, and another guy bought some to take with him.
When we left the prison nobody was searched by the guards, just as nobody had been searched when we entered. After the tour I don't think anybody could say that they enjoyed it, but everybody found it extremely interesting. The amount of corruption that exists in San Pedro and Bolivia in general is just incredible. I'm glad I did the tour because it was a real eye-opener, plus at the moment the prison tours have been put on hold because it's becoming like a tourist attraction.
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