La cárcel del infierno en Costa Rica _ Relatos del lado oscuro

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:07.480
When we talk about a prison,
a prison, we always get this feeling

2
00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:14.279
of violence, of danger, of
death, of all kinds of horrible things,

3
00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:21.039
of deep sadness. Now imagine that
to that is added the isolation,

4
00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:26.879
the violence by the authority that controls
the place, the violence of own resources,

5
00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:31.920
the lack of food, the suffocating
heat, a brutal solar intensity due

6
00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:43.240
to its proximity to the equator,
the lack of water. So we'

7
00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:50.560
re at the entrance of hell itself, or we' re on the San

8
00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:55.240
Lucas prison island in Costa Rica.
Come with me, let' s take

9
00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:06.920
a look at this place. Stories
from the dark side, strange beings,

10
00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:30.400
inexplicable events, family reversidas stories that
other minds prefer to ignore this image that

11
00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:34.840
I' m projecting to you right
now has a story. Every time some

12
00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:42.840
tourist dressed in shorts, sandals,
a lot of suntan or sun block and

13
00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:47.959
a rare look comes up some of
the guides. He comments on the legend

14
00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.760
of the Vikini girl. Legend has
it that one good day, the prisoners

15
00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:59.599
thirsting for passion, thirsting for sexual
impulses, managed to distract the guards,

16
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:06.239
take control of the infirmary and kidnap
the only nurse there was, with whom

17
00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:15.919
they did horrors, untold abuses,
extreme violence. When satisfied with their lower

18
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:24.080
instincts, they ended with that assault
they murdered the nurse after mutilating her horribly

19
00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:30.479
used the blood to paint this image. Of course more than one tourist feels

20
00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:35.960
sorry to have seen that and there
are even some who feel indisposed and have

21
00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:42.280
to leave the place. However,
the story is not entirely true and is

22
00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:46.960
not entirely true. Not because the
prisoners wouldn' t have done it.

23
00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:51.319
No, of course I do.
If there had been a woman there,

24
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.439
they would surely have killed her in
the most terrible ways you can imagine.

25
00:02:54.520 --> 00:03:00.919
Don' t doubt that they killed
everyone who was passing them by. Yes,

26
00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:06.800
it was also painted with blood.
No. The tests carried out in

27
00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:12.000
recent years show that there is no
blood compounds with what was painted this image

28
00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.439
is basically a bit of enamel paint, probably the same one that was used

29
00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:21.199
for maintenance, some black paint and
some charcoal, very similar to the other

30
00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:24.719
image that is around the lady of
the Paraguas, which also represents a woman

31
00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:38.360
of natural size and voluptuous appearance.
These images are nothing else, but the

32
00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:44.039
reflection of a life in captivity,
in a barbaric isolation. They are part

33
00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:50.199
of today' s tour to San
Lucas Island, currently declared a protected enclosure

34
00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:57.879
for nature. The prison, the
old prison, is visited by tourists.

35
00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:01.840
For some it turns out to be
in very bad taste. This is not

36
00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:08.199
about going to visit the beach or
going to visit a museum. It is

37
00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:13.080
a place where death was the everyday, where extreme violence was the everyday,

38
00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:18.720
where sexual, physical and mental abuse
were the everyday, where the lack of

39
00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:25.000
even the most basic things were also
everyday, where death could come from everywhere

40
00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:30.759
and in the most varied forms.
It is not a place where a girl

41
00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:39.480
should appear in a small suit and
take a selfi, nor is it the

42
00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:46.319
place where an imbecile guy with some
alpargatas, a short that looks like a

43
00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:51.000
tent, a stupid smile making erotic
poses next to one of these drawings,

44
00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:56.399
which represented, at best, the
erotic longings of a prisoner who probably and

45
00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:04.480
died in the worst case. These
images, which are now used as a

46
00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:10.920
selfi background, represent the hatred that
one prisoner felt for a woman, the

47
00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:18.360
purest animal desire that another felt for
a woman. There are stunning images in

48
00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:25.879
there Some of them are extremely explicit
in nature, impossible to put into a

49
00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:30.160
video. Others represent messages of repentance, of guilt of death. Some of

50
00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:40.920
them are small fragments that feel poetic, others are dramatic. It' s

51
00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:48.319
not a place where it feels right
for people to take selfis, not because

52
00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:55.680
it' s a holy place,
not because it' s a sacred place,

53
00:05:55.959 --> 00:05:59.720
but all the opposite. This was
a place where the worst or the

54
00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:08.879
worst of the human being would float
out or, otherwise, die let me

55
00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:15.759
tell you something else. Saint Luke
Island was originally called by the natives of

56
00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:20.120
the Shara Shara region. It was
an ordinary island It had a small community.

57
00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:25.639
About 3, 000 years ago.
It wasn' t a place of

58
00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:30.480
sacrifice, much less. It was
simply a place where there was fishing activity,

59
00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:34.639
where there was gathering, etcetera.
There was a huge population of birds

60
00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:41.000
of all kinds. It is located
in the Gulf of Nicoya, in Costa

61
00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:46.639
Rica, on the Pacific Ocean side, near the mouth of the Gulf of

62
00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:54.959
Made the Pacific. It' s
a peculiar place for several reasons. First,

63
00:06:55.720 --> 00:07:00.560
because it is relatively close to the
land of the territory or continental.

64
00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:09.079
It is a kilometer from the island
to land, there is a kilometer on

65
00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:13.759
the other side, towards the region
of Punta Arenas, there are about seven

66
00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:18.000
or eight kilometers. The place,
as such, is not very big.

67
00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:27.360
It must be about four hundred and
so many hectares, very densely covered with

68
00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:30.839
vegetation, with very high temperatures all
year round and yet it is a somewhat

69
00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:36.199
dry place. Despite being covered with
vegetation, there are no easy outcrops of

70
00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:42.439
fresh water. The water found on
this island is obviously affected by the constant

71
00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:49.439
presence of salt water. The shore
even when it' s close. At

72
00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:53.800
the same time, it' s
very treacherous. The island is surrounded by

73
00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:58.759
strong currents, some ascending northwards,
others southwards, that communicate to the Pacific

74
00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:05.879
and generate these strong currents that can
drag anything. But along with this,

75
00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:15.680
also in the region near, to
the coast to the mainland, there are

76
00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:22.040
all kinds of things, from alligators, populations, numerous caimans, animals,

77
00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:28.519
ponzoños ranging from vipers and insects,
plants and clear on the way from the

78
00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:33.440
island to mainland, there is also
a strong shark population, that is,

79
00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:39.600
that this small island, this island, is a place surrounded by many dangers.

80
00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:46.559
But, in addition to this,
it is a place that does not

81
00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.120
feel very fit for life, even
with all this vegetation, even with all

82
00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:58.519
this abundant fauna. Let me tell
you that in this place there were good

83
00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:03.480
deer turtles fishing birds. However,
it is not suitable for other reasons.

84
00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:07.799
First, the lack of water,
of fresh water one hundred percent, second,

85
00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.240
the terrible heats and then, when
the rain storm comes in, the

86
00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:22.440
affectation by tidal winds. All this. Perhaps this was why in one thousand

87
00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:28.480
eight hundred and seventy- three he
was considered the place to found a prison

88
00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:35.440
island. The place had been used
years ago as a quarantine place when a

89
00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:41.000
ship was approaching Punta Arenas and inside
it was sick, the boat was sent

90
00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:45.840
to the bay of San Lucas Island, a place somewhat protected from the currents

91
00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:50.159
and where it could anchor and stay
there as long as it took when the

92
00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:56.519
crew had died those who had to
die and those who were saved were saved

93
00:09:56.559 --> 00:10:01.080
well, the boat could continue its
march. So I already had a history

94
00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:07.159
out there that, at least the
bay was a place where bodies were thrown.

95
00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:15.480
For that year of one thousand eight
hundred and seventy- three, the

96
00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:22.080
then Costa Rican ruler, Tomás Guardia, decides to convert it, together with

97
00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:26.279
the island of Coco or Coco,
into prison communities, to go penitentiaries places

98
00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.039
to send the prisoners. The idea
was very simple. The most dangerous men

99
00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:35.240
didn' t have to be in
the city, in the world, in

100
00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:39.440
the village, it was preferable to
send them there. Away murderers, scum,

101
00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:46.080
garbage. Worst of all, those
who had committed appalling crimes, who

102
00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:50.440
had frightened society, who had altered
order, should be sent there. What

103
00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:56.440
few knew was that, in reality, the central idea of Thomas Thomas Guardia

104
00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.960
was not to get rid of the
prisoners of extreme danger. There were not

105
00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:07.519
so many, if not so frequent, but Thomas Guardia was trying to stay

106
00:11:07.559 --> 00:11:16.759
in power constantly and permanently. So, in reality, the Isle of St

107
00:11:16.840 --> 00:11:20.759
Luke became the place to send political
enemies, adversaries, journalists, writers,

108
00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:30.120
people who were opposed to it.
It didn' t last many years.

109
00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:35.919
This subject Tomás Guardia died relatively soon, about eight or nine years after having

110
00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:39.879
opened to the island of San Lucas
as a prison facility. Tomás Guardia dies,

111
00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:43.519
but that doesn' t mean the
island disappears, quite the contrary.

112
00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:50.639
The place continues in the beginning.
The conditions were terrible. A small pier

113
00:11:50.759 --> 00:12:00.519
was built with dungeons that were there
made of stone, with a small window

114
00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:03.879
on the top and a place where
they threw the prisoners, literally throwing the

115
00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:13.159
prisoners. Beyond this were some huts
where the prisoners who were sent the guard

116
00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:20.919
would be accommodated. He was usually
military. The possibilities of escape very vague,

117
00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:24.879
very poor, despite the proximity to
the land. That was part of

118
00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:30.080
the horror of being there, because
from the shore of San Lucas Island you

119
00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:35.360
get to see land, you get
to see the peninsula. So, it

120
00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:41.000
was dramatic, but they knew they
wouldn' t make it. Those who

121
00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:46.720
tried most of the time did not
get very far, although there were escapes,

122
00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:52.720
but in that first period the goal
was not to send prisoners, of

123
00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:58.159
course some were also sent, but
to end the political adversaries. When it

124
00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:05.159
disappears tomas guar that dies relatively young. Over the next few years, those

125
00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:18.039
really become a prison killers, vagabond
rapists. It was a mixture of incredible

126
00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:22.240
prisoners and the conditions are still the
same, which made the chances of survival

127
00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:28.080
very low inside this place. But
we' ll see about that later.

128
00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:35.519
Over the years and beginning the 20th
century, some adaptations are made, some

129
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:41.200
improvements. Let' s call him
that. A suitable space for command is

130
00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:48.039
built, a chapel would be built
a little later. The famous pavilions of

131
00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:52.240
the album are built, which was
a place to accommodate the prisoners with an

132
00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:56.720
aljíber or a cistern to the central
part in the form of a disc.

133
00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:05.120
Some modifications were made and it was
believed that it had improved that. With

134
00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:09.879
the passage of time and already by
the fifties, the penitentiary island ceases to

135
00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:18.279
be as such a prison and becomes
an agricultural prison colony where the prisoners could

136
00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:26.200
be in some form free. There
were animals, there were plots to sow

137
00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:30.600
and self- sustaining. Let'
s call them that. That was a

138
00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.919
thousand nine hundred and fifty- eight. However, despite this, the brutality

139
00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:43.000
within the island was embarrassing. Shameful
for a country that had officially eliminated the

140
00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.919
army since a thousand nine hundred and
forty- eight, when the Costa Rican

141
00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:52.080
army was declared extinct, for a
country that had openly declared itself pacifist,

142
00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:58.399
to have the island to San Lucas
and the conditions there were terrible. The

143
00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:05.120
construction of the famous axes was part
of this project. It didn' t

144
00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:09.799
mean any improvement at all, but
at least it was already a paradise compared

145
00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:15.000
to the original. For a thousand
nine hundred and ninety- one it is

146
00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:18.120
decided to close it completely as a
prison. There is nothing left and then

147
00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:22.039
it becomes a biosphere reserve, a
place where there are all kinds of birds,

148
00:15:22.200 --> 00:15:28.879
bugs, turtles and other things.
But why it has attracted so much

149
00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:35.320
attention from its own and others.
This island attracts attention because, like many

150
00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:41.759
other prison islands, conditions were extreme. However, when you see alcatraz the

151
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.799
penitentiary island in the United States that
you hear was practically a hotel compared to

152
00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:52.279
this island, going the marias in
Mexico didn' t stay far behind either.

153
00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:58.440
The brutality was similar, but here
there were so many factors adding up

154
00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:03.480
or s RLL. Nine hundred and
sixty- three, a man wrote a

155
00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:07.480
book about this José León Sanchez.
The name of the book is The Isle

156
00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:12.320
of Men Alone and it was a
narration of his own experiences within the island

157
00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:18.919
and the experiences of other prisoners who
told him. This opened the door to

158
00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:25.080
being known in the world. What
happened there and obviously Costa Rica ashamed of

159
00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:30.480
that, ended up closing it,
but it would not be closed, but

160
00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:37.120
until the ninety- one, long
after, after this brief parenthesis or this

161
00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:45.200
introduction, let me tell you a
little more. The island was originally considered

162
00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:51.519
a place for political enemies and this
led to no care being taken towards the

163
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:56.559
prisoners. When a prisoner arrived on
the island, the first thing to break

164
00:16:56.639 --> 00:17:02.600
it, break it. It was
known that the prisoners, regardless of whether

165
00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:07.119
they were political criminals enemies of the
regime, as in the case of the

166
00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:15.160
1920s, or if they were criminals
of the greatest violence or simply persons who

167
00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.480
had been pointed out and charged.
That didn' t matter. They were

168
00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:22.400
taken there and broken to break a
person. The first thing that was done

169
00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:27.599
was to put him in this kind
of cell, in these dungeons that were

170
00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:33.000
near the port. Thus, arriving
there was thrown by a group of men

171
00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:40.480
into a confined space with just a
hole in the top. There was no

172
00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:44.240
greater ventilation, there was no adrenaje
service, there was no toilet, there

173
00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:48.119
was no supply of anything. Those
who fell there could have been above fifty

174
00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:56.960
degrees of temperature and then, then, the madness started in there with the

175
00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:02.079
absolute humidity attached to the body leather, the salt glued to the body.

176
00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:10.400
The delusion of being locked up led
to them slowly breaking down. Those men,

177
00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:15.720
tough, dangerous thugs would pass by, but obviously there would also be

178
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:21.839
a guy who stole something, someone
who killed but was not really a criminal,

179
00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:25.359
just on one occasion, for some
lawsuit, for a quarrel and went

180
00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:33.200
to stop there the food. Those
of us who were in these early separators

181
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.200
are going to call him in this
kind of dungeon. The food was very

182
00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:41.440
simple. At some time of the
day, a guard with a bucket would

183
00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:48.680
throw food through this hole and then
throw a bucket of water which he could

184
00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:52.599
eat with his hand would eat what
had fallen to the floor, mixed with

185
00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:57.359
the feces of those who were there. In and after the water the same

186
00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:06.119
thing had to be drunk as you
could the merla of the floor in the

187
00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:11.160
madness of being there for several days. Some would end up dead, others

188
00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:15.160
would kill the one next to the
most brutal forms, strangled with blows as

189
00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:19.160
out. What they didn' t
know was that the dead man would stay

190
00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:25.319
there. The guards wouldn' t
do anything to get him out. Until

191
00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:29.599
all the prisoners were allowed to be
taken out, they' d take out

192
00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:33.480
the dead man. This meant that
with the passage of just a few hours,

193
00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:38.319
the one who had died would begin
to break down and after three days

194
00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:44.440
would be an unbearable pestilent mass.
But that didn' t matter. It

195
00:19:44.519 --> 00:19:48.160
really didn' t matter whether those
prisoners were alive or not. What mattered

196
00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:52.920
was that when his will came out
he was so broken that they couldn'

197
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:59.279
t fight that they weren' t
combative in there anymore, where the other

198
00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:03.200
prisoners were those who saw survival gone
to the first lock- up, The

199
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:06.480
conditions were similar. So they wouldn' t have the strength to face the

200
00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:11.160
guards again. Thirty guards for two
hundred and fifty prisoners. Sometimes even more

201
00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:18.240
would be relatively easy to lift and
take down the guards. That is why

202
00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:22.519
it was necessary for them to break
them in the worst way. They weren

203
00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:30.799
' t innocent people. Some yes, obviously yes the political prisoner who fell

204
00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:33.519
there and who at the same time
fell with a guy who had killed seven

205
00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:40.920
or eight or with the leader of
a gang of murderers was lost, but

206
00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:45.559
who had sent him to prison would
be perfectly clean. In the case of

207
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:51.039
the dictatorship of the Tinoco brothers between
seventeen thousand nine hundred and seventeen and nine

208
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:55.880
hundred and nineteen, this was perfect. Anyone who objected could be sent to

209
00:20:55.920 --> 00:21:00.680
St Luke' s Island and would
never leave there again alive. Who killed

210
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.119
him, who knows what he died
of. Who knows they sent him to

211
00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:07.279
kill, no, no, they
didn' t send him to prison and

212
00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:08.720
that he didn' t resist is
different. So it was very appropriate.

213
00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:15.880
But other tremendous things are also told. He knows once that the first prisoners

214
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:21.119
arrived and were thrown there if one
of them was a pretty young man,

215
00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:26.720
that one in particular was very coveted. The Isle of Men Alone, there

216
00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:32.799
were no women, as its name
indicates. Thus, acts of sodomy were

217
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:38.880
frequent and the fact that it had
reached a young person and that it could

218
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:48.480
literally be commercialized among the prisoners was
something very useful. So the one who

219
00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:53.759
came and fell there did have to
go through that hole, through the famous

220
00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:57.319
Calabozo at the entrance. But if
he died, they would take him out

221
00:21:57.359 --> 00:22:02.319
and very quickly. It is said
that in the early days, the one

222
00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:08.519
who died there was quickly taken,
washed, dressed as a woman and sold

223
00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:12.200
brutality in its greatest expression. But
the others, if any of them died

224
00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:17.839
there, would stay there. This
meant that entire groups of prisoners who arrived

225
00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:22.400
died. It was impossible to survive
being next to a corpse after three days

226
00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:30.319
in a fifty- degree heat,
it meant that very soon everyone would be

227
00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:37.160
intoxicated and sick and end up dying
there in the past, which was the

228
00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:40.720
problem of removing the bodies. For
this purpose lime was thrown and sent to

229
00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:45.480
other prisoners to remove the bodies.
The bodies as such, there was a

230
00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:51.319
cemetery, a small pantheon in there, but the pantheon only has a few

231
00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:56.599
bodies. So most of these bodies
were most likely thrown into the sea.

232
00:22:57.119 --> 00:23:03.039
The downward current would take them to
the Pacific Ocean. The rising current would

233
00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:08.240
lead them to the upper Gulf of
Nicoya, where they would probably be devoured,

234
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:15.720
either by shark alligators for what was
there. There' s barely a

235
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:18.279
dozen bodies in the graves. So, actually, in a prison that was

236
00:23:18.359 --> 00:23:25.880
open for over a hundred years,
that' s not credible. There was

237
00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:30.000
also a second stage. If a
group of prisoners had managed to survive the

238
00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:34.880
first phase, they would have to
walk along a road that was known as

239
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.079
the street of bitterness. Yes,
I know there are many streets of bitterness,

240
00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:45.079
but this was called the street of
bitterness, a small paved road that

241
00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:55.759
led from these first facilities to the
inside of the prison there. In the

242
00:23:55.880 --> 00:23:59.720
early days, that meant getting there
and putting on a shackle. The first

243
00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:03.759
thing that was done to prevent the
escape of the prisoners was to put a

244
00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.440
shackle on them. The shackle was
nothing other than a clamp that pressed the

245
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:12.240
ankle, a kind of metal ring
that tightened tightly with a simple iron screw.

246
00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.480
At ankle height. The chain would
have been about three meters and must

247
00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:23.359
have weighed about fifteen to twenty kilos. This one had to be loaded all

248
00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:26.440
the time. He wouldn' t
take it off. The prisoners could go

249
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:30.640
to an area of the island to
cut vegetation to prepare pastures, as there

250
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:40.039
would also be in this same place
breeding grounds where deer birds were kept and

251
00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:45.079
sent to the mainland and served to
pay the costs of the island, not

252
00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:48.519
for the food of the prisoners.
No, sir it was, to pay

253
00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:52.839
the costs all the time. The
prisoner had to run the chain. The

254
00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:56.599
target if he tried to jump into
the sea with the chain, he would

255
00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:02.359
probably die, he couldn' t
kick, he couldn' t swim,

256
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:04.680
I mean n but the result of
this was terrible. In the heat,

257
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:11.039
without proper hygiene, without being able
to bathe, without being able to remove

258
00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:18.240
that in a short time they developed
from gangrene infections, anything, they ended

259
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:21.240
up losing their foot and this was
a damn death. In the place the

260
00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:26.400
medical dispensary would be built well into
the 1930s, so before this the prisoner

261
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:33.119
was laid wherever possible. Once the
day was over, the prisoners were taken

262
00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:37.880
back to the places of night accommodation
where they were chained. There was no

263
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:45.880
such cell, singles, grilled beds, none of this. The prisoner was

264
00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:51.240
simply hooked on a pole, on
a wall where he went and slept on

265
00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:56.720
the floor, so that the will
was breaking and there came the food.

266
00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:02.960
The food was not precarious. I' d lay down in every way.

267
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:06.440
Lack of water, lack of food, lack of vitamins, lack of fresh

268
00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:11.480
fruits led to epidemics. Practically all
the time. There were epidemics in some

269
00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:15.640
cases and, according to narratives,
towards the end of the 19th century,

270
00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:18.480
one thousand and eight hundred and ninety. There were several epidemics that decimated the

271
00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:26.000
prison population up to sixty percent of
the prisoners died. Where the bodies are.

272
00:26:26.759 --> 00:26:30.559
Good question. It is known that
there was this because of the testimonies

273
00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:37.079
of some prisoners who were subsequently released, but not because there are records.

274
00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:42.000
That' s interesting. Many of
the records that are kept are by testimonies

275
00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:48.440
of survivors or even of the guards
themselves. But of those early years,

276
00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:53.519
obviously, it was no use for
anyone to have a record of what was

277
00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:57.519
going on there. There was left
who had come alive and who had not

278
00:26:57.559 --> 00:27:02.640
come alive. Who I' d
come out with alive. It was a

279
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:07.759
matter that didn' t matter and, obviously, as the years passed.

280
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.279
No one should know. When a
new President dies, he prefers to remain

281
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:18.200
silent. When this happens in the
1920s, with the Tinocos the same thing,

282
00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:23.880
it is better not to be known
and so on they would take records

283
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:30.599
later in the 1950s, when that
already becomes something different. But in those

284
00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:33.799
early years, from one thousand eight
hundred and seventy- three to well into

285
00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:37.160
the twenties of the twentieth century.
In there, life and death were of

286
00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:45.599
no importance. The worst of the
criminals could be tied together with a man

287
00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:49.880
who had done nothing when the time
for food came. The worst of criminals

288
00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:57.480
would obviously eat that guy' s
stuff and use it for their low instincts

289
00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:02.880
as well. There was all this, but there were ways to end it

290
00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:07.000
too. Terrible things are said.
For example, those who tried to kill

291
00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:12.319
themselves had no way of not giving
you a tool to eat with their hand.

292
00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:17.640
So, the guard would throw something
on the floor and you' d

293
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:21.359
take it and eat it you could
drink some water. Over there, from

294
00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:25.759
some bucket that was from some warehouse, but you didn' t have any

295
00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:27.000
elements. There was nothing you could
keep. There was nothing you could take

296
00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:34.119
your life with. Of course,
some of them have tried to jump into

297
00:28:34.119 --> 00:28:37.880
the sea. Depending on the area, you could fall into the rocks,

298
00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:45.880
fracture and stay there until you died
or drowned by the tide. On the

299
00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:49.400
other side, jumping into the sea
would mean drowning and then dragging your body.

300
00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:52.519
It was a way out, but
those who didn' t have the

301
00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:59.319
courage of that could ask the favor
of someone killing us. It was such

302
00:28:59.400 --> 00:29:04.319
despair that you could ask for this
There were guys inside who could kill you

303
00:29:04.359 --> 00:29:12.279
in the most varied ways in exchange
for what you had already been cigarettes for

304
00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:18.519
serving him for rampant carnal instincts.
The fact is that after this I could

305
00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:22.519
squeeze your neck to death and the
disorder and the pain of being locked up

306
00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:30.720
is over. There' s proof
of it, only testimonies. The fact

307
00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:34.720
is that prison itself, even with
the passage of time, would not improve.

308
00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:41.200
When the circle or disc pavilion was
built in the 1930s, the conditions

309
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:48.519
did not change the inmates' lodgings
were this kind of long galleys with just

310
00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:55.960
three ventilations from each side and a
single door inside, in a relatively small

311
00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:02.599
space, could fit up to seventy
or eighty individuals at the fall of the

312
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:11.200
afternoon when the door closed and all
remained inside. The temperature reached extraordinary levels.

313
00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:17.000
There were no toilets at all,
there were no beds, there was

314
00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:22.079
no separation between the two. And
while already in the 1930s the matter that

315
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:26.599
the shackles had ceased to be fashionable
what they did, that they were locked

316
00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:30.480
in there and darkened, there was
no electric power, there was no lighting,

317
00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:36.160
there was nothing going on in there, so there were those who were

318
00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:45.039
already known to be part of a
group and therefore had a function. There

319
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:51.000
was the hitter, there was the
leader, like the old criminal horse that

320
00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:53.599
had been taken there. This one
would come later. But in the 1930s

321
00:30:53.720 --> 00:31:00.759
there were these gangs in there who
managed all kinds of things, who had

322
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:07.519
control of sex, yes, they
controlled the newcomers and sold them, they

323
00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:11.680
could even dress as a woman and
of course, the one who did not

324
00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:15.920
accept was lost because, anyway,
they would continue to use it in the

325
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:22.119
same way and end up killing it. Fever, typhoid, malaria were a

326
00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:30.000
common situation here. He who refused
and assembled a lawsuit could also be sent

327
00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:34.720
to a new punishment. When the
disk was built this module with the pavilions

328
00:31:34.839 --> 00:31:41.799
around in circular form as a kind
of panoptic. When this was done,

329
00:31:41.880 --> 00:31:45.160
they realized it was a mistake.
It had been built to store water.

330
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:48.440
The water that fell on the roofs
would arrive by means of a series of

331
00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:55.960
cañuelas towards this reservoir that would serve
to store water, but it did not

332
00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.960
serve to begin, the places very
dry the rain when the tank fell was

333
00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:05.880
empty, had broken and leaked quickly, but had a plus. The place

334
00:32:05.960 --> 00:32:10.960
could serve as a torture cell,
a single hole, similar to the famous

335
00:32:12.920 --> 00:32:20.240
dungeons at the entrance, except much
warmer. He who was thrown there could

336
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:25.440
spend several days there scarcely would throw
something at him When someone remembered the screams,

337
00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:31.279
the horror, the fact that being
in a closed place that is exposed

338
00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:37.880
to the sun cover could reach temperatures
of 60 degrees enough to dehydrate a person

339
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:44.960
in just a few hours. Only
a few survived and clearly survived if the

340
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:50.039
chief of the guard did. If
the chief ordered no water, no water

341
00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:54.000
would be put on and the prisoner
would die in two days. If the

342
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:58.519
chief ordered it to be a punishment, but not death, water would be

343
00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:02.920
thrown at him and at some point
food, but he had no services,

344
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:08.920
there was no way to evacuate the
waste and clear, when it rained and

345
00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:15.519
the water fell, the waste began
to float around the prisoner that was in

346
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:19.920
there, so that even when there
was a lot of water, the quality

347
00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:23.839
of this was disgusting and within a
few hours, when the water finished raining,

348
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:30.000
it had leaked again. It wasn' t the only thing there were

349
00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:37.519
beatings, constant abuse, injuries were
frequent. It was a place where life

350
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:43.160
expectancy is lost when it arrives and
someone loses the prisoners who were sent.

351
00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:50.119
It was said that they were to
life imprisonment that they would never leave again

352
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:55.599
and yet they also suddenly sent a
young man for stealing something with all intent.

353
00:33:58.640 --> 00:34:00.160
It' s not because I was
a life- long prisoner. It

354
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:07.639
was because they needed fresh meat,
as they were told, and as soon

355
00:34:07.719 --> 00:34:10.280
as they arrived they were dedicated to
it, but there were also animals.

356
00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:16.239
So the perversions that were practiced in
this place were enormous. The fact of

357
00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:25.440
locking these extremely dangerous subjects in an
isolated place virtually unchecked at night was a

358
00:34:25.480 --> 00:34:31.840
condemnation for the weak. That did
not mean that the weak had not committed

359
00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:38.920
crimes in all cases. In some
cases they were definitely innocent, but there

360
00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:45.320
they found their end. The horror
that was lived in this place. It

361
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:51.159
is what leads me to think if
it is right to go there and take

362
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:55.920
a selfi with a short and flip
flops, when in this place, in

363
00:34:57.079 --> 00:35:00.199
this very place, where the woman
of the boots is drawn to s s

364
00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:05.360
s who raped the companion, sexually
abused the companion and then killed him,

365
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:09.519
does not fancy the nice place to
go in a colorful swimsuit an American tourist

366
00:35:09.639 --> 00:35:17.599
taking a selfi. It is a
place that should already be on the ground,

367
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:23.880
because it is the memory of atrocities
that were committed there even in the

368
00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:30.079
fifties, after Costa Rica had jumped
to world fame for having abolished the army

369
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:34.079
and being an example of a pacifist
country, in this place they continued to

370
00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:40.400
kill people and continue to see abuses. José León Sánchez talks about that in

371
00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:45.320
a thousand nine hundred and fifty,
when he was accused of a robbery and

372
00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:49.480
was named the beast of the Basilica
or the monster of the Basilica for having

373
00:35:49.599 --> 00:35:53.800
gone to steal from a basilica valuables
in the act had died someone. Actually,

374
00:35:54.199 --> 00:35:57.880
José León, he wasn' t
guilty. He didn' t steal,

375
00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:00.920
he had been a relative who pointed
him out. That gives you an

376
00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:06.599
idea of how many people who had
committed no crime were there and clearly there

377
00:36:06.719 --> 00:36:14.400
were also great criminals and dangerous subjects, all mixed up. That set the

378
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:22.079
tone for this place to be considered
as the gate of hell, although some

379
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:25.440
considered the gate of hell to be
the entrance and here in it was the

380
00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:32.079
same hell. Years later these same
galleys where today tourists take photos and smile

381
00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:43.039
and make absurd signs. In this
place the prisoners painted these things. It

382
00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:49.360
was a reflection of their fear,
of their desires, of their contempt for

383
00:36:49.440 --> 00:36:53.920
the lives of others, of the
violence one cannot imagine when one sees these

384
00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:00.840
images of extreme brutal sexuality, it
is not there. We' re seeing

385
00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:05.360
something nice. Seeing a drawing that
looks like the football player Pelé doesn'

386
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:10.440
t mean it was fun, it' ll be there nothing. That'

387
00:37:12.159 --> 00:37:14.599
s what people saw, what they
believed, what they thought, what they

388
00:37:14.920 --> 00:37:19.719
dreamed of, who slept there about
each other, waiting to see when someone

389
00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:25.199
abused them, when someone killed us? It' s not a nice place.

390
00:37:25.519 --> 00:37:31.559
It' s clear to me when
it closes. Besides, there'

391
00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:36.400
s not much information. Even though
it was in the nineties. If you

392
00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:43.679
' d expect information files, there
isn' t. Important human rights researchers

393
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:50.320
have requested access to the reports.
The Inter- American Court of Human Rights,

394
00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:53.920
which is based in Costa Rica,
has requested access to official reports to

395
00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:58.719
the reality of what happened there.
The University of Costa Rica has done archaeological

396
00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:04.280
surveys everywhere, but they do not
find the data. It strikes me because,

397
00:38:05.880 --> 00:38:08.320
obviously, in a country with a
history of pacifism, the existence of

398
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:16.159
this colony with such vexations was incredible. There' s a certainty that that

399
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:21.440
happened. Yes, the guards themselves
who have probably survived the latter, in

400
00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:24.679
recent times narrated this. They were
saying, like, at a certain time.

401
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.679
The guards, finishing the last check
at nine o' clock at night,

402
00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:32.360
were getting out of there. They
didn' t want to know any

403
00:38:32.440 --> 00:38:37.440
of this, because whoever was around
would hear what was going on in there

404
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.880
It was preferable the next day to
just report a lost prisoner. I wasn

405
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:45.639
' t really lost. He had
been killed during the night and his own

406
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:49.360
companions at dawn when the door opened, he would have been pulled and thrown

407
00:38:49.400 --> 00:38:53.840
into the sea or taken to the
vegetation. He had already stayed in such

408
00:38:53.960 --> 00:38:59.320
a way that there were no guilty
ones, there were no accusations. Of

409
00:38:59.360 --> 00:39:02.400
course, if someone beat a policeman
or one of the guards would stop at

410
00:39:02.480 --> 00:39:07.400
the disc or before the disc was
there he would go to a few small

411
00:39:07.519 --> 00:39:13.000
cells that were on the waterfront,
where when the tide was rising, the

412
00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:16.039
prisoner would be left with the water
at this point. If he was lucky,

413
00:39:16.679 --> 00:39:20.400
because on occasion watching the tide he
would climb up a little bit more

414
00:39:20.400 --> 00:39:23.280
and kill him. There was also
the cage. The cage was well established

415
00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:27.000
in the 1950s. That' s
why I' m telling you I'

416
00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:30.119
m surprised. The cage was a
cage, a steel gate, where they

417
00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:34.920
put a prisoner probably the most dangerous, the ugliest, the one who had

418
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:37.920
committed the worst horrors and when the
visits came, because already in the fifties

419
00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:44.280
there were visits, they could see
it. Today we' d take a

420
00:39:44.400 --> 00:39:47.199
self in the inmate. It'
s the equivalent what they' re doing

421
00:39:47.199 --> 00:39:52.280
now. They' d go for
a selfi with the prisoner. That'

422
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:57.159
s what was there. How many
other things happened. I don' t

423
00:39:57.159 --> 00:40:00.559
know. Guards died, yes,
yes, there were many dead guards.

424
00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:06.679
It was easy to get distracted and
the prisoner, who was closer to you

425
00:40:06.760 --> 00:40:09.400
with the chain, cut off your
head, tied your chain until he finished

426
00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:15.000
hanging you and finally ripped you out. I had nothing to lose. And

427
00:40:15.079 --> 00:40:21.199
when he wondered what happened, no
one saw anything, so neither were the

428
00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:24.719
guards safe. Perhaps that' s
why it was reported that in the 1930s

429
00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:31.920
a terrible act was ordered. Apparently
in the 1930s, a group of prisoners

430
00:40:32.039 --> 00:40:37.280
had killed one of the guards in
one of the pavilions in the back of

431
00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:44.760
these, which were about two levels. One of those prisoners had killed a

432
00:40:44.840 --> 00:40:49.480
guard and then he had run and
got into the cell along with other prisoners

433
00:40:49.599 --> 00:40:53.320
who were there and had locked the
door, the captain had locked himself in

434
00:40:53.360 --> 00:40:58.719
order to set fire down. They
had locked themselves in the top, whether

435
00:40:58.800 --> 00:41:00.400
the n n s the r s
or the bottom, where they stored different

436
00:41:00.519 --> 00:41:07.039
things. There they placed zacate,
i e grass, dry, wood,

437
00:41:07.199 --> 00:41:10.519
branches, whatever it was and set
fire. They burned everyone, everyone up

438
00:41:10.599 --> 00:41:15.679
there, they died suffocated, burned
out the next day, cleaned the place,

439
00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:21.880
the bodies were dumped over there and
moved on so there was extreme violence

440
00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:29.480
everywhere. They killed the nurse to
paint the painting. No, but if

441
00:41:29.559 --> 00:41:32.599
a nurse had come. They probably
would' ve killed him. They weren

442
00:41:32.679 --> 00:41:37.159
' t good people. A lot
of those in there weren' t good

443
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:43.280
people. They were despicable beings in
many ways, able to kill, to

444
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:49.079
abuse, to raise the worst instincts
of the human being and to focus them

445
00:41:49.119 --> 00:41:54.400
against less force, against which could
not be defended over the years. That

446
00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:59.719
must have left a burden impregnated in
this place. Those who have visited the

447
00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:02.639
site say that you still sit down
and let me tell you something. The

448
00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:07.440
places that are visited today, these
places where the paintings are like those of

449
00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:12.920
the women I have shown you,
are not the places where the worst atrocities

450
00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:20.199
were committed. These were the quiet
places. These were the places that opened

451
00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:27.559
up. The 1930s are already in. Yes, these were not the worst

452
00:42:28.599 --> 00:42:32.880
and yet the simple fact of going
in there permeates a strange energy vibration a

453
00:42:34.039 --> 00:42:37.000
feeling of loneliness, of abandonment of
anger I do not know how you can

454
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:40.880
take a selfi in a colorful swimsuit
next to one of these images, what

455
00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:47.639
you think clearly, is a historical
enclosure, but there should be some respect.

456
00:42:50.119 --> 00:42:52.920
In Mexico, for example, we
have the Black Palace of Lecumberry,

457
00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:57.320
one of the worst prisons that you
remember and it wasn' t this.

458
00:42:58.559 --> 00:43:02.920
It was a harsh, violent,
cruel prison. When it closed, it

459
00:43:04.039 --> 00:43:07.199
was going to tear down, it
was simply going to sweep completely. With

460
00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:10.239
this it was chosen to preserve it, because it was a historical monument.

461
00:43:10.280 --> 00:43:15.840
As for the building, but it
was given a meaning, it became the

462
00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:20.519
historical archive, in the general archive
of the Nation, where the records of

463
00:43:20.599 --> 00:43:25.400
those who lived there, who suffered
there, are archived. The island of

464
00:43:25.480 --> 00:43:34.719
St Luke feels that it should have
something different, because within there the vileness,

465
00:43:35.159 --> 00:43:39.159
the cruelty, the pain, the
fear, remained impregnated paranormal phenomena.

466
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:44.480
There must be. There must be, but they' re not very credible

467
00:43:44.480 --> 00:43:50.679
either. The testimonies and investigations of
paranormal tourism are just as offensive to me.

468
00:43:51.679 --> 00:43:53.639
These groups that arm themselves with a
flashlight, with a little gadget,

469
00:43:53.800 --> 00:43:59.440
that makes pl plip and that go
around saying if you' re here give

470
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:02.119
us a sign. I don'
t think it makes sense for them to

471
00:44:02.199 --> 00:44:06.679
do that, but those who have
been there for years have lived horrible things.

472
00:44:07.400 --> 00:44:10.239
Some of the testimonies we could find
of prisoners who were in the place

473
00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:15.920
late in the sixties and seventyes before
it was closed in the ninety- one,

474
00:44:16.119 --> 00:44:22.480
claimed that the place was not only
afraid. In this place, I

475
00:44:22.559 --> 00:44:27.199
was not only afraid of what would
make you the hill, but of what

476
00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:30.119
I would do to you who no
longer see the beast, who will roar

477
00:44:30.280 --> 00:44:35.320
at you and there is no one, when there was already electricity and you

478
00:44:35.360 --> 00:44:40.320
could see it. Suddenly you felt
that there was someone next to you you

479
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:45.599
threw yourself on the floor as there
were always no beds, you didn'

480
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:50.559
t need to cover yourself, just
look for a way that it wasn'

481
00:44:50.639 --> 00:44:54.199
t so terrible to be there,
that you didn' t get up the

482
00:44:54.280 --> 00:45:00.400
insects and then suddenly, in the
middle of the night, you felt this

483
00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:00.440
strange cold that came to you in
a place with forty degrees of ambient temperature.

484
00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:05.199
Suddenly you felt a terrible cold and
something that is next to you.

485
00:45:06.519 --> 00:45:09.400
And you realize there' s nobody
next to you, but something stayed there.

486
00:45:10.519 --> 00:45:19.039
And then the voices for years,
the returning prisoners must be in the

487
00:45:19.239 --> 00:45:23.159
labors of the countryside when it was
already an agricultural colony and they were already

488
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:25.559
returning to the axes. Now I' m telling you about it. Or

489
00:45:25.960 --> 00:45:30.519
they were going back to the disk
area. If for some reason it was

490
00:45:30.639 --> 00:45:32.960
made at night in the middle of
the bush, they were accompanied all the

491
00:45:32.960 --> 00:45:36.960
time. Sometimes the guards had already
left, it didn' t matter.

492
00:45:37.480 --> 00:45:40.559
Go as you can, but no
one is there at night because in these

493
00:45:40.559 --> 00:45:44.800
places. Suddenly someone' s talking
to you, they' re talking to

494
00:45:44.920 --> 00:45:46.039
you, but there' s nobody
there. Or suddenly someone comes pulling you,

495
00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:51.519
you feel clearly, like you,
they' re pulling clothes and there

496
00:45:51.639 --> 00:45:54.400
' s no one next to you. But when you get to the area

497
00:45:54.480 --> 00:46:00.239
where the different settlements are and then
it was night, amid the loneliness of

498
00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:04.760
these dark places, the noises of
the animals, suddenly stop completely, completely

499
00:46:05.559 --> 00:46:12.159
there is no animal noise for some
reason. All the chicharras, the monkeys,

500
00:46:12.599 --> 00:46:16.320
the different bats in this place are
silent. And that' s when

501
00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:23.000
you hear that cry a long deep
lament, right next to you, when

502
00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:25.199
there' s no one in this
place, when they' re not there.

503
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:32.000
Some lost their mind. Some lost
their mind. It is said that

504
00:46:32.119 --> 00:46:37.119
some prisoners, after being locked in
the famous iron, feeling the presence of

505
00:46:37.239 --> 00:46:40.239
these things, together with them,
went mad. The iron was a special

506
00:46:40.280 --> 00:46:47.599
place, it was a punishment cell. It was like buried three small doors

507
00:46:47.679 --> 00:46:52.920
for three small cells. Completely closed
everything. There' s no sun,

508
00:46:53.119 --> 00:46:58.519
no ventilation, no drainage, no
bathroom, nothing. The temperature can go

509
00:46:58.679 --> 00:47:04.719
up incredibly. You' re in
there in the heat, the sweat,

510
00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:07.000
and suddenly you won' t get
sick. Someone opens a hatch that is

511
00:47:07.039 --> 00:47:13.000
above and throws lime fists that immediately
begin to react with your own organic matter,

512
00:47:13.519 --> 00:47:15.880
with your urine, your excrement the
remains of the food, generating unusual

513
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:22.719
heat. For what was called the
iron and you had a choice. You

514
00:47:22.840 --> 00:47:25.480
could go to the iron or the
boat. The boat was for you to

515
00:47:25.639 --> 00:47:31.119
go and unload the ships that arrived
the iron was your punishment. But with

516
00:47:31.199 --> 00:47:35.320
the passage of time, the iron
was not only the iron and its punishment,

517
00:47:35.440 --> 00:47:38.000
but also what was there, the
fact that being there suddenly felt like

518
00:47:38.039 --> 00:47:42.920
something pressed you against the wall as
if there was a person pressing you like

519
00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:45.960
something that lifts you up, like
something that strangles you, that pulls you

520
00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:50.400
out, that rips you out.
But only you are there, wherever there

521
00:47:50.440 --> 00:47:57.559
is someone else, you can'
t even lie down. One in ten

522
00:47:58.039 --> 00:48:05.119
came out alive. The others died
there in septicemias, poisonings, dehydration,

523
00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:10.199
insect bites and clear from there was
also the other thing outside walking in the

524
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:16.480
vegetation. Why do you want to
escape you won' t get far if

525
00:48:17.039 --> 00:48:22.320
you try to cross to the east
area, where there was a series of

526
00:48:22.679 --> 00:48:27.519
small bays you would end up clawed, because in this site there is holy

527
00:48:27.639 --> 00:48:30.400
grass everywhere and the herbs were incredibly
urticant before. It causes from skin irritation

528
00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:34.800
to very high fevers. There are
bugs, there are spiders, there are

529
00:48:34.920 --> 00:48:39.880
plants everywhere that can take your life
in a little while. How many remained

530
00:48:39.880 --> 00:48:46.000
there. Good question. As much
as we' ve asked, we haven

531
00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:51.679
' t found a single piece of
information to show us how many prisoners they

532
00:48:51.679 --> 00:48:55.239
really were. There is a precarious
historical record that marks that in one year

533
00:48:55.320 --> 00:49:00.400
eighteen prisoners died, in another year
three died. But even the person who

534
00:49:00.440 --> 00:49:05.159
discovered this in an archaeological investigation insists
that this is not possible because of the

535
00:49:05.239 --> 00:49:08.079
conditions on the island and because of
the testimonies there are, it is not

536
00:49:08.199 --> 00:49:14.719
possible, but they left a mark
of pain, anguish, fear, all

537
00:49:14.719 --> 00:49:17.480
the conditioning for this site to be
an enclosure with a terrible paranormal load.

538
00:49:21.079 --> 00:49:24.760
The buildings that are there today are
recent. The old chapel, in fact,

539
00:49:24.840 --> 00:49:29.119
was built in the thirties of the
last century the area of command,

540
00:49:29.599 --> 00:49:35.719
also the dispensary equally the axes.
The axes were built in the 1950s.

541
00:49:35.840 --> 00:49:40.239
If axes were nothing but houses,
they were houses for free prisoners. Yes,

542
00:49:40.920 --> 00:49:45.320
as an agricultural community, there were
people who could walk, go and

543
00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:49.559
come and have these spaces. They
were the prisoners of trust. We'

544
00:49:49.639 --> 00:49:53.440
re going to call them still so
they would pass ready at nine o'

545
00:49:54.159 --> 00:50:00.880
clock at night, the Guard would
pass by and through a small opening in

546
00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:02.960
the door screamed axe, that is, the face would pop out to see

547
00:50:02.960 --> 00:50:05.679
you and write down. That'
s why they were called the axes.

548
00:50:06.079 --> 00:50:10.880
But the conditions there were no longer
so terrible and do not lose sight that

549
00:50:12.039 --> 00:50:15.480
this continued to operate until a thousand
nine hundred and ninety- one. Yes

550
00:50:15.639 --> 00:50:20.280
as an agricultural colony, like what
you want to send. But the agricultural

551
00:50:20.280 --> 00:50:22.239
colony began in fifty- eight,
that is, until well into the twentieth

552
00:50:22.320 --> 00:50:29.639
century. This place in a place
of death and destruction. Now you understand

553
00:50:29.679 --> 00:50:34.400
why there are no records, because
no one wants you to remember. For

554
00:50:34.480 --> 00:50:38.280
many the film The Isle of Men
Alone, a Mexican film of nineteen hundred

555
00:50:38.320 --> 00:50:42.559
and seventy- something, was a
fantasy. It was something they saw invented

556
00:50:43.679 --> 00:50:49.320
without knowing that it was based on
the text of José León Sánchez, who

557
00:50:49.440 --> 00:50:52.000
was based on his own life.
This man was in that jail for 30

558
00:50:52.000 --> 00:51:09.519
years. If you have a chance
to read that book, read it is

559
00:51:09.639 --> 00:51:13.920
exhilarating and now I would like some
greetings, but first I want to ask

560
00:51:13.920 --> 00:51:19.239
you something. During the previous weeks, the number of requests for greetings has

561
00:51:19.320 --> 00:51:24.440
been enormous. We are very pleased
that they honor us by asking us for

562
00:51:24.519 --> 00:51:30.239
a greeting, but it has become
a little disorganized and, therefore, we

563
00:51:30.320 --> 00:51:35.400
have stopped attending to some requests.
We' ve lost some important greetings,

564
00:51:36.039 --> 00:51:39.480
missed a few birthdays, and it' s become very complicated. We want

565
00:51:39.719 --> 00:51:45.639
to ask you a favor. From
this program, we ask that all greetings

566
00:51:45.760 --> 00:51:54.079
be requested through the Facebook page via
invox message. For those who manage Facebook,

567
00:51:54.199 --> 00:51:58.880
they know what that is, that
is, they send us a message

568
00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:01.599
to Facebook. That way we'
re going to have a lot of control

569
00:52:01.639 --> 00:52:07.559
over the greetings and birthdays we'
ve handled so far through four different platforms.

570
00:52:07.880 --> 00:52:10.000
It' s been very complicated because
there are those who write to us

571
00:52:10.039 --> 00:52:15.960
in an email who send us a
message through the chat in the program we

572
00:52:15.079 --> 00:52:19.639
' re presenting, others put it
in the chat of some other program someone

573
00:52:19.679 --> 00:52:22.719
else in the Facebook chat. That' s become very complex and we'

574
00:52:22.800 --> 00:52:24.199
re going bad. And we don' t like that. Therefore, we

575
00:52:24.199 --> 00:52:30.199
ask from this program any greetings,
any birthdays, we gladly send it.

576
00:52:31.559 --> 00:52:34.840
We don' t charge for that
you don' t charge. You don

577
00:52:34.920 --> 00:52:37.719
' t have to do anything,
just tell us. But, please,

578
00:52:38.039 --> 00:52:42.760
through invox' s message on Facebook, we will greatly thank you so that

579
00:52:42.840 --> 00:52:49.320
we can do it correctly and offer
in advance an apology for all those people

580
00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:52.559
who have been left with a bad
look and who were waiting for a greeting,

581
00:52:52.800 --> 00:53:00.440
a birthday greeting and we have not
been right to the point. A

582
00:53:00.519 --> 00:53:05.599
very heartfelt apology, and now you
allow me. I would like to send

583
00:53:05.679 --> 00:53:10.559
a very special congratulations to a friend
and colleague of this channel, Dr Atenea

584
00:53:12.239 --> 00:53:14.159
Vázquez of the Realistic Nutrition Channel.
She' s a friend of the channel.

585
00:53:14.199 --> 00:53:16.599
He' s been with us a
long time. We' ve announced

586
00:53:16.679 --> 00:53:20.199
it many times because we believe in
what' s on your channel. She

587
00:53:20.320 --> 00:53:23.159
' s a professional. She is
about to be a doctor of nutrition,

588
00:53:23.360 --> 00:53:28.079
a doctor of doctorate, to have
studied a career, a master' s

589
00:53:28.159 --> 00:53:30.000
degree, a doctorate, that is
to say, she is a person who

590
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:32.840
knows a lot and is celebrating years. He' s doing years today.

591
00:53:34.280 --> 00:53:37.679
So we send him a huge congratulations. We want it to be a great

592
00:53:37.679 --> 00:53:40.079
year, Doctor, that it is
a year of many successes, that this

593
00:53:40.119 --> 00:53:45.320
channel will grow a lot, but
also that personal life will be magnificent,

594
00:53:45.599 --> 00:53:49.960
of great growth, that the projects
will be made, that it will be

595
00:53:50.039 --> 00:53:55.360
a year of those in which many
of the expectations that were put at the

596
00:53:55.480 --> 00:53:59.320
beginning have been fulfilled and exceeded,
that there will be good news every day,

597
00:53:59.320 --> 00:54:00.639
that there will be novelty. It' s growing that every day we

598
00:54:00.679 --> 00:54:07.239
' re surprised and remember it as
a great year with a lot of affection,

599
00:54:07.679 --> 00:54:12.880
happy, birthday and of course,
we have others here we have Lily

600
00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:17.360
Moore. She is celebrating years and
we also want to make her a great

601
00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:22.280
happiness for the whole year, make
it a great year and a strong hug

602
00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:27.239
Lily, for Carlos Enrique Garduño,
Edna, his wife sends her a great

603
00:54:27.239 --> 00:54:30.920
congratulations. We love that the wife
is congratulating the husband. That means they

604
00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:35.719
see us together and we love that
We also want to congratulate Gustavo Macclan in

605
00:54:35.800 --> 00:54:38.920
León, Guanajuato, his dad sends
him a great congratulations. Both accompany us

606
00:54:40.199 --> 00:54:45.039
and it is an honor to be
able to congratulate you to the land of

607
00:54:45.039 --> 00:54:50.760
Calzado in Mexico, León, Guanajuato, a very pleasant place that brings us

608
00:54:51.039 --> 00:54:53.119
very good memories for Alicia Enríquez.
She' s in Bariloche, Argentina.

609
00:54:55.119 --> 00:55:00.719
Many congratulations, a big hug.
Thank you for accompanying us from their special

610
00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:05.159
territories. For María Elena Leiva,
who is always with us, to go

611
00:55:05.199 --> 00:55:08.440
Mamesa, who is also with us
and has turned both years, for Guadalupe

612
00:55:08.599 --> 00:55:14.800
Hernández Vargas, who has also turned
years and is always with us. And

613
00:55:14.920 --> 00:55:20.280
today, for Rosa María Lara,
which birthday today, for Deunel who also

614
00:55:20.519 --> 00:55:24.360
birthday today, and for Francisco Jaime
in Nuevo León, who also birthday today,

615
00:55:24.760 --> 00:55:29.960
and for Everardo or Campo, who
also birthday today. For all of

616
00:55:30.039 --> 00:55:35.760
them a great hug, a loving
parazo, a lot of gratitude for this

617
00:55:35.800 --> 00:55:40.880
time they have dedicated to us,
for this honor that they have given us

618
00:55:42.280 --> 00:55:44.599
to accompany us and clearly we also
want to send some other messages here.

619
00:55:44.679 --> 00:55:50.440
We want to give a very special
greeting to Delia in Mexico City Deia is

620
00:55:50.480 --> 00:55:54.840
in recovery, has had a contagion
out there of something and has been ill,

621
00:55:55.079 --> 00:55:59.119
but is recovering well. It'
s gonna be great. We want

622
00:55:59.199 --> 00:56:04.719
you to put on the number one
bomb- resistant Sana' s fort and

623
00:56:04.719 --> 00:56:08.519
your sister, Guadalupe Pérez also wants
it and sends you this loving hug from

624
00:56:08.599 --> 00:56:15.800
all the team that we wish you
together to recover soon and how soon we

625
00:56:15.880 --> 00:56:21.880
see it well. Of course,
we also want to send a strong hug

626
00:56:21.920 --> 00:56:24.039
to our friend Begoña of look.
The creation is that they' re also

627
00:56:24.159 --> 00:56:28.599
a little bit mean out there at
home, but we know that they'

628
00:56:29.199 --> 00:56:31.880
re going to be great soon and
that, before they realize it, they

629
00:56:32.280 --> 00:56:37.199
' re going to be spare parts
and making again formidable creations, our best

630
00:56:37.199 --> 00:56:42.639
wishes. And for Carmen, Amelia, Carmen Amelia, congratulate Carmita Valera.

631
00:56:43.559 --> 00:56:46.000
They' re in Ecuador and she' s birthday yesterday. Carmita is a

632
00:56:46.119 --> 00:56:50.440
follower of the Canal, which gives
us a huge taste and we send her

633
00:56:50.480 --> 00:56:52.400
this strong hug, even if it
is a little late. But, as

634
00:56:52.480 --> 00:56:53.840
we have always told you, it
is not a day, it is a

635
00:56:53.960 --> 00:57:00.320
whole year. Happy birthday, and
we still need to send a grain hug

636
00:57:00.360 --> 00:57:02.679
to Norma, who' s in
Canada. Norma is a follower who wrote

637
00:57:02.719 --> 00:57:07.760
us a very nice, very pleasant
email. We appreciate it. His words.

638
00:57:07.039 --> 00:57:12.239
It makes us feel great. Thank
you very much and of course,

639
00:57:13.159 --> 00:57:20.960
speaking of thanks, we would like
to thank you right now for some other

640
00:57:21.920 --> 00:57:27.440
thanks for Magdalena Martínez, for Lorena
Aguilar Sacurraba, for Patrick Rosas, for

641
00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:32.199
Diana Trejo, Tania Padrón, Raúl
Jiménez, Alex Morales, Sith Covian,

642
00:57:32.960 --> 00:57:38.000
Yanira Salinas, Víctor Escobedo, Dina
Boudelar, José Marcos da Silva, Carlos

643
00:57:38.199 --> 00:57:43.239
Romero, Saúl Servín, Lucy amor
Anne Rodríguez, Vilebalda, Alonso Tanatólogo,

644
00:57:43.239 --> 00:57:46.079
Liliana Palacios. Many thanks to all
of you for your support of the Canal

645
00:57:46.119 --> 00:57:52.880
through your SUPERFENX donations. We very
much appreciate this help for us to continue

646
00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:58.719
doing these programmes. Thank you for
that privilege of letting us do this project

647
00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:32.280
very good night and that from nr
in peace or r