Marching Powder

One of the strangest things we have in Bolivia is San Pedro Prison.

Made famous by the cult book Marching Powder it draws thousands, well, maybe hundreds of people to the gates of the prison each year, and nearly thousands, well, hundreds of them all get turned away.

The book is about English bloke called Thomas McFadden who was convicted on drug smuggling and thrown into San Pedro Prison and a life he could never have envisaged. He doesn't speak the language and unluckily for him the inmates had labelled him "Gringo" which pretty much means he is screwed.

The book reveals a mysterious and dangerous world filled with bribery, violence and, people who pay to visit prisons.

In this prison you are forced to buy or rent your cell, and if you cant afford it then you basically live in the gutter. You can earn money by setting up your own business like shops or restaurants. There are even some who have their own little business empires right within the prison walls. But after a chance meeting in a nightclub Thomas sets up tours of the jail for backpackers going through Bolivia, which turns out to be a real money spinner....

In the summer of 2005 whilst in my local bar Oliver's Travels in La Paz I got talking to a man who had been in the bar for some weeks. A slightly ageing (I’m being nice, like when you say "she was big boned" referring to a fat chick, he was about 50) South African by the name of Stuart.

An interesting guy. Said he owned a bar in Durban in South Africa and was in Bolivia just visiting sites and getting away from the rat race of hometown life. Fair enough. There was not much else of note to mention. He had lost his credit card and was waiting for his son to wire him some money so he could make the journey home. Oli (the owner of the bar) was generous enough to give him an open tab until his money came in, so every morning and every night he would be perched on a stool at the bar with a fag in one hand, and a pint in the other.

His money eventually came in after three weeks of phone calls back and forth between Stuart and his son, he settled his tab with Oli and left.....

....three days later Rick, the Dutch owner of another Bar across the road that Stuart often went to got a phone call from Stuart;

"Mate you have to help me. I'm in San Pedro Prison. They found four kilos of coke on me at the airport. I'm fucked!"

Well, that’s not exactly the phone call as i wasn’t there, but i'm sure its the gist of the whole thing.

As i have said earlier, this is no ordinary prison. You have to pay for everything, even the privilege of getting locked up. Those unfortunates with no money get thrown into the open area in the prison. This is where the lowest of the low are. The gringo haters. Murderers. Rapists. Man Utd and Chelsea fans. Basically not very nice people.

Back to Stuart - he was lucky that he had people he could call. Two of the bar staff at the time (an Irish couple, Paddy and Suzie who were possibly the nicest most genuine people you could ever meet) went straight to the prison and helped him out with the first US$500 so he could buy a room to stay in.

Stuart was convinced that he was set up, and there was no reason why this nice guy, who didn’t touch drugs himself and even frowned on those that did, would be guilty. Was there?

Since the publication of Marching Powder in 2002 all official tours which were started by Thomas McFadden have been stopped. There was also a rather disturbing case of two female visitors being raped, so the gov't closed the place off to nosey Gringo's and placed a plaque on the outside of the prison warning that tourists will not be allowed into the prison.....but a country with corruption, where there is a US$ there is a way...

BUT of course I am not like that. Never bribed anyone in my life and hopefully never will (I say whilst hitting a wooden table hard with the palm of my hand). I have a Bolivian ID card, and therefore was let into the prison without too much difficulty......and only returning to one place to ask the same question that i had asked five minutes ago twice, which believe me for Bolivia is good going!

To this day Stuart still claims he was set up. I saw him on my first ever visit to the prison on March 5th....


....To Be Continued