Mexico Island Prison: Remote federal prison with hundreds of inmates shut down

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02:36

Some news from the Americas. Mexico has closed down a prison on an island some 100 kilometers off its Pacific Coast. More than 500 inmates living there were either transferred to other prisons or set free. CGTN's Franc Contreras made the journey to the island to learn what became of this infamous prison.

The Islas Marias federal prison was built in 1905. Few outsiders have ever seen it until now. CGTN recently visited this isolated prison island located 110 kilometers off Mexico's Pacific coast.

For decades, authoritarian governments sent political dissidents to the Islas Marias. It's most well-known prisoner, writer Jose Revueltas, wrote a novel here called 'Walls of Water'.

In a presidential decree, Mexico this month transferred 584 prisoners to mainland jails. The government granted freedom to dozens of other inmates. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he closed down the infamous island prison as a symbolic act of social justice commemorating his first 100 days in office.

FRANC CONTRERAS ISLAS MARIAS "Over the decades, this remote Mexican island located out in the Pacific Ocean has been home to tens of thousands of inmates and public servants working inside Mexico's penal system."

SANTIAGO JORGE CONTRERAS PRISON PSYCHOLOGIST "He strapped on plastic floating devices and swam to a nearby island. But he became violently ill after eating raw iguana. Guards later found his skeletal remains."

Most Mexicans knew of this remote penal colony because it appeared in films, including one with actor Pedro Infante.

An empty playground reminds us that mostly low-risk inmates were once allowed to bring their families to live here. But that's the past.

The four islands making up this tropical archipelago will be transformed into a cultural and environmental education center. FC, CGTN, reporting from Islas Marias, Mexico.