Palacio de Lecumberri

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Palacio de Lecumberri

The Palacio de Lecumberri is a building in the Colonia Penitenciaría Ampliación in the Venustiano Carranza district of Mexico City . It was built as a prison between 1885 and 1900 and held this function until 1976. The prison was also called "Palacio Negro" (Black Palace) at this time. Today the building contains the national archive with the most important documents on the history of Mexico . The name of the building was taken from a neighboring street named after a previous property owner. In its more than 75-year history in prison, only two or three escape attempts were made, in which parts of the guards were also involved.

history

Because the prison of Belén was no longer sufficient for the Mexican capital, which in the late 19th century already had around half a million inhabitants, construction of a new prison began in 1885 on the site of San Lázaro, which was then still on the outskirts of the city It took 15 years to build and cost 2.5 million pesos . It was opened on September 29, 1900 by long-time Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and in its early days was considered the most modern prison in Latin America . But it was not long before the institution fell into disrepute and was given the nickname “Black Palace” with negative connotations. The convictions - especially at the time of the Porfirian dictatorship - were often purely arbitrary and reached the height of injustice when, on February 22, 1913 , on the orders of General Victoriano Huerta, the then President Francisco Madero and his Vice-President José María Pino Suárez in the rear part of the prison were shot .

But the prison conditions also became increasingly inhuman. Although the prison was designed for 740 prisoners, it has regularly held between 3,000 and 5,000 prisoners in the last few years of its existence. The most feared area was called "El Apando", a foul-smelling hole filled with droppings and vermin. There, prisoners were detained in small cells for several days or weeks with no light, ventilation, bathroom and only a minimal supply of food. In addition, some of the staff were corrupt and often also violent towards prisoners.

To this day it is controversial whether Pancho Villa managed to break out of the Palacio de Lecumberri or the prison of Santiago Tlatelolco .

Famous prisoners in the Palacio de Lecumberri were the painter David Alfaro Siqueiros , the singer and composer Alberto Aguilera Valadez , the writer José Revueltas , the political activist Heberto Castillo , the philosopher Elí de Gortari , the Colombian writer Álvaro Mutis , who has lived in Mexico since 1956, as well as the radical union leaders Demetrio Vallejo and Valentín Campa . The revolutionary Pancho Villa was also imprisoned in the Palacio de Lecumberri. The official charge was horse theft and General Huerta wanted to have him shot, but President Madero granted him a reprieve. According to the records of the Mexican National Archives, Pancho Villa was the first (and until the 1970s only!) Prisoner to escape from Lecumberri. But this tradition is not without controversy, as there are also reports that Villa was moved to the prison of Santiago Tlatelolco before he escaped and that he escaped from there.

According to the official reading, the American Dwight Worker was only the second (and perhaps actually the first?) Person to break out on December 17, 1975 after Lecumberri Prison had existed for 75 years. Worker arrived in Lecumberri on December 8, 1973 after being convicted of drug smuggling and escaped two years later disguised as a woman. His wife Barbara had smuggled the utensils for him into the prison, but it can be assumed that some of the staff were involved in the escape. In any case, 15 guards were soon sentenced for assisting them to escape.

A few months later there was another successful outbreak when prisoners Alberto Sicilia, José Gossi, Luis Antonio Bravo and Alberto Hernández dug a tunnel in cell 29 of Block L in April 1976 through which they escaped. Three of them were caught in the first few days, but this case, too, aroused suspicion of the assistance of parts of the prison staff and the amalgamation of organized drug trafficking with the Mexican authorities. The escape through the 40-meter-long tunnel was even more discredited by the public when the press reported on April 30, 1976 that Sicilia had bribed the head of the guards in cell wing L with 2.5 million pesos.

With the presidential decree of May 26, 1977 the conversion of the prison into the National Archives ( Archivo General de la Nación , AGN for short) was decided, which was opened on August 27, 1982 after five years of renovation.

The National Archives houses, among other things, a collection of indigenous colonial maps that were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2011 .

Web links

Commons : Palacio de Lecumberri  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La historia detrás del Palacio Negro de Lecumberri (Spanish; article from October 30, 2012)
  2. ↑ About.com: Pancho Villa (Spanish; accessed June 16, 2013)
  3. ↑ La Fuga de Francisco Villa ( Memento of the original dated November 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Spanish; article of November 5, 2012) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ahoradiario.mx
  4. ↑ Ottawa Citizen: A Unique Wedding Gift (February 16, 1980 article)
  5. ↑ El Sol de Zacatecas: Lecumberri, el palacio negro (Spanish; article from January 25, 2009)
  6. ↑ Alberto Sicilia Falcón, el narcostar bisexual (Spanish; article from February 10, 2012)

Coordinates: 19 ° 26 ′ 10.9 ″  N , 99 ° 6 ′ 47.7 ″  W.