below is an email that i received from a friend currently traveling latin america. we lived in the same house for a week in mexico, met up once in el salvador, and might even run into each other again if we both make it to colombia around the same time! how interesting it is to travel, for so many reasons.
in any case, her email about her experience visiting a prison for alleged and convicted drug traffickers in quito, ecuador. i found it really interesting and thought i'd pass it along...thanks for your permission to post it pei!
-------------------
Original Email
-------------------
Greetings from the equator line!
Hola mis amigos!....I just had the most amazing day of my travels so far, and I say this without any reservations. It was definitely one of the most interesting days of my life!!! So.....today we spent the whole day visiting foreign inmates in Ecuador prisons that are in for drug trafficking. Well, fact is there are over 100 foreigners in Ecuador prisons and 99.9999999999999999999999% are in for drug trafficking or consuming.
WOMENS PRISON
Okay, so we started our day with a visit to the womens prison. It was such an awkward moment for us, there we were 5 foreigners standing around laughing and talking about the amusement factor of being able to do something like this whilst not realising that for everyone else in line this was their reality. We came bearing gifts in hand of cigarrates, tampons, pads and chocolates. The majority of persons waiting outside were men and children. The sweetest thing I saw was one man brushing his hair just before entering. Female and male visitors waited in separate lines. We are so eager to meet Zoey from Ireland. How it works is you dont have to pay anything to go in, as long as you know the name of an inmate inside. Once we were in, we were padded down thoroughly, and I mean THOROUGHLY. I distinctly remembered just after entering, seeing the jail looking with apartment complexes in poor neighbourhoods,all the guards in their full military outfit with salsa music playing in the background - at that point I thought IM IN SOUTH AMERICA DUDE!!!!!!
When Zoey first appeared, she wasnt what I was expecting. She looked like a matured lady in her 30s. We were standing in the stairways talking for a fair bit about how she got there. She was a BBC reporter who had gone to Columbia and Ecuador for the first time in her life to do a documentary on the drug trafficking business. On the day at the airport in Quito, her name was announced over the PA, she thought there was a complication with the flights or something. It turns out, they were arresting because the camera equipment was completely laced with cocaine. The three cameramen had fled the scene by then, all the bags had been checked under her name. She fainted. Whats worse, one of the men had been her best friend for the past 11yrs and the godfather of her children. All her rights were stripped. There is no law here. It was not till a month after being detained that she made her first contact with anyone, her husband. Not even the consulate up until that time. Hearing her story made our stomaches churned.
Shes been in jail for three years with a 8yr sentence. But with all hope, she will be repatriated back to Ireland next month (if not she will have to serve the remaining 5 years of her sentence). BBC has been fighting for her case hard, its been covered to the extent that it caught the attention of Oprah. But it had been blocked by Ecuador officials because of all the media exposure and public suppórt she would gain from it. She was incredibly inspirational, writing a book about her experience, staying positive the whole time. There are another 30 or so other foreign girls in there for drug trafficking, only two of them are innocent. Most of them have given up hope and succumbed to a lifestyle of an addict, choosing to live in the worst quarters of the prison because thats the only place you are allowed to do drugs. Drugs is readily available inside the jail, they are brought in by the prison guards themselves!!!! Theres no shame in that for them.
Zoey is lucky enough to be living in the quarter where living conditions are better - simply because everyone must pay for their room. There is a housing renting system inside. The most expensive room goes for US$3000. For the Ecuador women, and most of the foreigners inside, they live in rooms big enough for two ppl but fitting 8 or 9 inside, and thats not including the children that live inside the jail with their mums. The most heartbreaking thing is knowing that once these kids turn 12 they will be kicked out of the jail and become streetkids. There are little food vendors, a general store and even an ice cream stand inside the compound. Everything, everything costs money inside the jail for these women, toilet paper isnt even provided!!!!! With drugs and money of course fuels rivalries, you pay for protection if you are not part of a gang and as told by Zoey, stabbings are a daily occurence. The story of a Columbian girl not being able to pay for her food of US$4 had her eyes gauge out by a knife. The guards do not do anything about the fights.
We spent the day with Zoey talking about the whole drug business, US foreign policy is unavoidable on this issue. Judges in Ecuador are under a lot of pressure to put away anyone caught with drugs on them, proven innocence or not it doesnt matter. The fact is the US awards judges with money, visas to US if they do their job. How disgusting.
Back to the men in lines......the men in line are not necessarily there to see anyone in particular. They come bearing gifts of rice, potatoes or anything else and stand in the courtyard, if a girl wants a particular commodity she will approach him and exchange it for sex. That came as a shock to us. Inmates can then rent out rooms for US$10 for them. That was disgusting too.
When we left Zoey Savage, we were just blown away by her story, courage and her faith. She was also three months pregneant. If anyone is interested, her book is called Fight for Freedom. It will be publish in the future.
MENS PRISON
Now....after hearing the personal story of a woman inmate we headed off to the mens prison to visit a friend of Zoey. His name was Tony from Nigeria. When we arrived, it was just so creepy. When we went to the womens prison, we didnt get that feeling because it didnt look like a jail. But this, this did! Walking through the initial corridors with all the inmates lining up on the side, playing pool, eyeing us, it was uncomfortable.
Tony greeted us with his friend and they were so hospitable. Providing us with snacks and drinks. They had been waiting eagerly. His friend ran a general store from his room. This visit was distinct from the women prison in the sense that we met so so many inmates inside from every corner of the world and talked to them about the life inside the prison. Unlike the women prison, there are guns and machetes inside. The foreigners inside range from the ones that kept a very low-key profile to the ones that were well.....shifty really. The ones that have earned their respect from the locals. The shiftiest of all was definitely this guy from Canada. He didnt want to talk about his experiences but was more than willing to show us around the compounds and talk about prison life. Masima from Italy amused me, he had a smile on his face and instead of choosing to pay for a room in the well off quarter (where most of the foreigners are) - he chooses to live in the quarter with the Ecuadoreans. I talked to him quite a bit and he told me that it was better to keep your enemies closer. In both of these jails, there is so much freedom. All day long they are allowed to roam around out of their rooms - this is not what I had imagined! There are no cells with bars!!! They have cabled TVs, entertainment units, dvd players and a big prison shake em down party every two weeks when women are allowed to stay for the night. Of course, the risks are pretty high. Stabbings are a daily occurring, interestingly enough every quarter has a King, an inmate who is the unofficial authority, we were told one of them are shot two weeks ago by his own fellow inmates and there will be a vote soon for the next King. It was just so so interesting. I even met a Chinese Malaysian inside there!!!!....we met and talked with a lot of them, even the Russian mobster was there! Then we were told we should leave soon because there was going to be prison riot soon. With that, we said our goodbyes and walked out eyeing the delicious food stands inside!
All and all - we couldnt stop talking it all in the cab ride back home. It felt so surreal, especially being in the mens prison. It was a dangerous place to be, for us girls it was fine - we just got undressing looks and whistles but the guys well, they were freaked out being fronted by some of the inmates. There are no guarantees inside. But, that is one thing that I can tick off my list of things to do after reading the book Marching Powder. Although, set in Bolivia this came pretty close to it. These societies are fucked enough on the outside, seeing it in the inside (its a jungle!!!!!) we all came away asking each other so how long do you think you would be able to survive in here?...
Sorry this has been long - but I felt compelled to write about my amazing day before it slipped from my mind. Thanks for reading guys!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment