Living the Life in Latin American Prisons

Guatemalan authorities this week broke up the party when they stormed into Guatemala's Pavon prison. This wasn't like most other prisons around the world. The Pavon prison operated as a cocaine producing lab / community, with druglords running the show. An entire community had been built around the trade with the most powerful prisoners living in plush, two-story houses complete with jacuzzi. Others built shops and restaurants and made money from the circular industry that surrounded the prison's primary trade.

This is not the only prison in Latin America that has been fueled by cocaine. Marching Powder is a memoir of one traveler's experience inside the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia. The book provides an insider's view of the lavish lifestyles led by the drug lords who ruled the prison and controlled the authorities. San Pedro Prison made its way to the backpacker trail when a British drug smuggler, who had settled himself into the prison's system, began offering tours to travelers. He paid off the guards to facilitate the tours and ultimately they ended up in the Lonely Planet's list of 'things to do in La Paz'. Before long backpackers were lined up outside the prison to get an inside glimpse of this Latin American 'Real World' and score themselves a buzz at a 'cell party'.

It's an outrageous story but an interesting read nonetheless.