2024-01-27 21:26:53
Restaurants with their gas stove and tables; barbershop; a small store like the one in any neighborhood, outside of which, a long corridor, hung a small advertising poster for Porta, then one of the three companies that offered mobile phone services in the country. There was no doubt, prepaid cards were sold there, with advertisements and all. As a journalist in contact with prisoners more suspected of being innocent and victims of a corrupt system than guilty, it was something I was grateful for, although it never ceased to surprise me: I could know what was happening at any given moment inside the prison, it only depended on whether the detainee had balance on your cell phone. Several of them, in fact, were part of my stable sources. From time to time the cell phones were seized in a raid, more tending to seek payment of bribes to the prison guides—as prison officials are known in Ecuador—than to maintain order. There were also dogs and cats that were cared for as pets. Even more shocking was the presence of women and children who came on visiting days, but who, in some cases, spent the night there with their imprisoned relatives.
The Litoral Penitentiary was just a projection behind the walls of the violent division into social classes that existed outside. Whoever had money could have access to a delicious encebollado or a shrimp ceviche. With your cold beer. It even had its own security: there were prisoners who guarded the entrance to the highest pavilions. standing, where amenities ranged from air conditioning to a computer. On the contrary, during mealtime pen offered to its forced guests, the lines became endless for those who only had to eat those chicken legs bathed in a suspicious broth. Whoever came last might not eat that day.
#Ecuador #country #imprisoned #hell