POPE-LATAM/BOLIVIA-PRISON UPDATE Pope visits one of Latin America’s most notorious jails

Record ID: 147686

  • Title: POPE-LATAM/BOLIVIA-PRISON UPDATE Pope visits one of Latin America’s most notorious jails
  • Date: 10th July 2015
  • Summary: POPE FRANCIS ARRIVING IN POPE MOBILE
  • Embargoed: 25th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAA666WK1SN5F3QXVVNENHDWGS6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Saying he too had made mistakes and sinned, Pope Francis on Friday (July 9) urged inmates at one of Latin America's most violent prisons to shun gang violence and exhorted guards to treat them with dignity.
    "The man standing before you is a man who has experienced forgiveness. A man who was, and is, saved from his many sins," the pope told hundreds of prisoners and their children on a visit to the Palmasola prison.
    Guards secure only the perimeter of the sprawling, maximum- security jail, while murderers and drug traffickers run its units, more shantytowns than prison wings, charging inmates for all aspects of their existence.
    At an emotional gathering on a scruffy sports field, three prisoners addressed the pope and spoke of the problems prisoners face in Bolvian prisons.
    Corruption and violence are at the top of the list. Palmasola is infamous for violence between factions. In one of the worst incidents, in 2013, at least 30 inmates were killed in section PC3, which houses the most dangerous.
    "We love you vicar of Christ, we pray for you and we desire from all our hearts that God bless you" said a female prisoner before bursting into tears.
    Most of Palmasola's inmates have not been convicted of any crime. Nearly 90 percent of Bolivia's around 12,000 prisoners are awaiting trial, trapped by the Andean country's creaking justice system.
    "True justice, we don't ask you anything else please intercede for us and thank you for being here with us" said another inmate.
    Since being elected the first Latin American pope in 2013, Pope Francis has continued a tradition he started when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, visiting jails several times a year.
    The pope later left Bolivia, flying to Paraguay for the last stop of his Latin American tour.
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