When I think of a prison island the movie Papillon comes to mind with Steve McQueen. The setting was Devil's island off the coast of French Guiana in South America. Panama had its own island penal colony, the infamous Coiba Island a few miles off the coast of the Azueros peninsula. According to Wikipedia:"Coiba was home to the Coiba Cacique Indians until about 1560, when they were conquered by the Spanish and forced into slavery. A penal colony was built on the island in 1919.
During the years that Panama was under the Dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega, the prison on Coiba was a feared place with a reputation for brutal conditions, extreme tortures, executions and political murder. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed in the prison during this period, but sources claim that the number could be close to three hundred. As such, the island was avoided by locals, and other than the prison, was completely undeveloped.
With that bad bit of Panama history closed in 2004, came some good news. The island would remain undeveloped as a national park, making it a rich ecological wonderland. I have been to the island several times during fishing and diving expeditions. I won't forget my first trip when it was still a penal colony that catered to fishermen with 6 small "hotel" rooms run by the prisoners. The prisoners had the run of the island and the guards would lock themselves up at night. On the way to the island I was told how we would not see any boats or people other than prisoners as they all stayed away from the island due to its reputation. You can imagine our surprise when we rounded the bay into the island and saw a small cruise ship anchored. What was even more surprising were several dozen naked foreigners playing volleyball on the beach near our 6 room "hotel". When we arrived at the shore the housekeeper/prisoner told us that this ship was a nudist group and they stopped to see the island. The prisoners who ran the "hotel" were embarrassed by the nudity and told us with disgust that these folks didn't even close the door when they went to the bathroom. Fortunately for us they all headed for the ship and sailed away.
The island of over 50 square miles is truly a wonderland of flora and fauna, both on the island and in the sea around it. Only a small amount of the land was used for agriculture during the years as a prison so most is still forested and in its primeval splendor. Now the Tourism authority is considering making the old prison buildings into a tourist attraction. I think that is a great idea as many would probably like to see the place and hear the tales of torture, murder and escape. But the real attraction is the unspoiled beauty and that should be the focus because it is the largest uninhabited island on the pacific coast running from the tip of Chile to Alaska.
Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have proclaimed Coiba an unparalleled destination for discovering new species. Rachel Collin, a Smithsonian project coordinator said: "It's hard to imagine, while snorkeling around a tropical island that's so close to the United States, that half the animals you see are unknown to science.”
Machine translated from La Prensa
After 90 years as a penal colony, the island of Coiba, in the Pacific province of Veraguas, officially closed on December 29, 2009 its doors as a prison center.
The National Prison ordered that the last prisoner serving his sentence on this site that will probably never return to host the nation's most dangerous criminals.
Since 2004, when it created the Coiba National Park, the island had gradually ceased to be a penalty but still remained in place 20 inmates who were part of Coiba Livestock Project.
They took care of the large number of cattle still out on the island, but their sentences were sent to the mainland. The latter returned three weeks ago, closing the prison history of the island.
Eliecer Abrego, coordinator of the Penitentiary System in Veraguas, catalogs this historical fact, because after many years did the role of Coiba to make way for conservation programs of the island and marine national park.
The last tenant was the culprit Margarito Flores Blanco, 38, who is serving a sentence of 17 years for murder. Because that was culminating his sentence was changed on 29 December to the public jail in Santiago.
Flowers thus became part of history that marks the end of this island prison, established in November 1919 by then President Belisario Porras.
Amid this historic event, Eleuterio Ureña, a former convict who paid eight years in prison in this prison, said that following its closure in the memory are plenty of facts and experiences that marked the existence of one of the most famous prisons Panama.
Urena recognizes that every man who served a sentence in Coiba, this represents an experience you never forget.
Ensure that what most resembles a man who has set foot in a position to convict Coiba is its natural beauty, whose conservation authorities must put all their efforts.
"That any prisoner was much better than any prison currently exist in the country, he had opportunity to work and, above all, to help conserve the natural wealth of the island."
Within its history as a penal colony, Coiba saves relevant facts and secrets, like what happened on 28 January 1998, when four prisoners were beheaded for the band The Dogs of San Joaquin at the hands of members of another group called The Sons of God A bloody chapter called The slaughter of Coiba.
The prison was also used by the military dictatorship until 1989, as a preferred site for the imprisonment and torture of anyone opposed to the regime.
According to Lourdes Lopez, former director of the Tourism Authority of Panama, Veraguas, you must implement an initiative for the preservation of the ruins of the prison and its cemetery, which over the years to deteriorate again.
These could be exploited as a site of interest for tourism.
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