From colonial times, the jails of Mexico have reflected the country's poverty and deprivation better than anyplace else. Toward the end of the 19th century-during the boom of the Porfirio Díaz regime-overcrowding and extortion, sexual ...See moreFrom colonial times, the jails of Mexico have reflected the country's poverty and deprivation better than anyplace else. Toward the end of the 19th century-during the boom of the Porfirio Díaz regime-overcrowding and extortion, sexual abuse and murder marked the lives of thousands of convicts locked up in improvised prisons, where the worst kind of criminal was thrown in with those who had committed misdemeanors, or even those who were innocent. The inauguration in 1900 of an impressive new penitentiary facility in Mexico City, modeled after the most advanced institutions of the day, led Mexicans to believe that the frightful reality of jails in our country had ended. Yet the name of that prison, located on the plains of San Lázaro, would become a key to 20th century Mexico: Lecumberri. Written by
Clío TV
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