Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility
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| Location | 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Tuxtla Martínez and Panachor, Creeperopolis |
|---|---|
| Coordinates |  43°26′08″S 54°59′05″W |
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Super-maximum |
| Capacity | 48,000 |
| Population | 53,385 (as of January 2024) |
| Opened | 26 November 1934 |
| Former name | Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez |
| Managed by | |
| Director | Colonel Onésimo Ledesma Soriano |
| Street address | 2291 Calle Correcional |
| Part of a series on |
| Human rights in Creeperopolis |
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The Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility (Creeperian: Ֆածիլիդադ Ծորրեծծիոնալ Մըխիմա դե Տփխտլա Մարտձնեզ–Պանաճոր / Facilidad Correccional Máxima de Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor),[a] commonly known as simply Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor (Տփխտլա Մարտձնեզ–Պանաճոր) or TMP (ՏՄՊ), is a Creeperian super-maximum security prison located at the base of the extinct Tuxtla Martínez volcano 9 miles (14 km) southwest of the twin cities of Tuxtla Martínez and Panachor. The prison is jointly operated by the Bureau of Civilian Defense Management (a part of the Ministry of Defense) and the Bureau of Prison Administration (a part of the Ministry of Law Enforcement).
The Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility was established in 1934, then known as the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez, by the Catholic Imperial Restoration Council and incarcerated both political prisoners and prisoners of war throughout the Creeperian Civil War. After the end of the civil war, the prison began incarcerating individuals convicted of capital crimes. With the beginning of the Mara War in 1979, the prison began to intake gang members and paramilitary soldiers. The influx of gang members to the prison partly contributed to the 1988 Battle of Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor prison riot which killed over 2,000 prisoners and guards. Since 1988, the prison has only accepted super-maximum security prisoners.
According to the prison's administration, the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility has a prisoner population of 53,385 as of January 2024[update], despite having a safe operational capacity of 48,000, making it the largest prison in the world by total prisoner capacity. The vast majority of the prison's inmates are gang members, political opponents, and individuals convicted of several capital crimes. All inmates at the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility are serving at least 150 years of imprisonment, at least two life sentences, or have been sentenced to death. According to the Creeperian government, no prisoner has ever successfully escaped from the prison despite numerous escape attempts, but some independent analysts have questioned the government's assertion of no successful escapes. The prison is guarded by 600 members of the Creeperian Imperial Guard and 2,000 members of the Creeperian Imperial Police, and the prison is directed by Colonel Onésimo Ledesma Soriano.
The Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility has been widely condemned by non-governmental organizations, independent analysts, and international media outlets as a source of rampant human rights abuses. The prison has oftentimes been referred to and described as a "concentration camp" by activists and journalists. The Creeperian government has published images and videos of the prison's inmates and living conditions to deter crime by presenting everyday life in the prison, but some independent analysts have claimed that official media published by the Creeperian government do not show the majority of the human rights abuses committed. Alleged leaked prison documents supposedly indicated that abuse, physical and mental torture, human experimentation, unjustified killings, extrajudicial executions, and other human rights abuses, as well as deaths caused by preventable diseases and unsanitary living conditions, are commonplace. The prison is also the subject of several conspiracy theories regarding the whereabouts of missing or deceased individuals.
Contents
Name
When the prison first opened in 1934, it was officially known as the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez (Creeperian: Campo Imperial դե Internamiento Militar–Տփխտլա Մարտձնեզ / Campo Imperial de Internamiento Militar–Tuxtla Martínez).[b] On 29 February 1952, the prison's name was officially changed to the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility (Ֆածիլիդադ Ծորրեծծիոնալ Մըխիմա դե Տփխտլա Մարտձնեզ–Պանաճոր / Facilidad Correccional Máxima de Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor). During the Creeperian Civil War (1933–1949), the prison was unofficially referred to as the Tlilteateskatl Penal Center (Centro Penal Tlilteateskatl / Centro Penal Tlilteateskatl,[c] literally meaning "black rock lake"), named after Lake Tlilteateskatl located just south of the prison. The Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility is commonly referred to by the media and in popular culture as simply Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor (Տփխտլա Մարտձնեզ–Պանաճոր) or TMP (ՏՄՊ).
History
Establishment and civil war period
When the Creeperian Civil War began in 1933, the right-wing Catholic Imperial Restoration Council (Imperial Council) purged left-wing politicians and military officers from its controlled territories. These political prisoners were incarcerated at viceroyalty prisons and city jails, however, the government determined that it needed to construct a new prison camp to incarcerate the predicted large influx of political prisoners from the National Council for Peace and Order (National Council) following the conclusion of the civil war.
In January 1934, the Imperial Army began construction of a prison complex at the base of the Tuxtla Martínez volcano and next to Lake Tlilteateskatl, located 9 miles (14 km) southwest of the twin cities of Tuxtla Martínez and Panachor. The Imperial Council determined that this location was both close enough to San Salvador (the Imperial Council's capital city) to administer effectively as well as being isolated enough that it would be difficult for prisoners to either be rescued by the National Council or to survive an escape attempt. The Imperial Council determined that the viceroyalty of Zapatista, where the prison is located, would be too difficult for the National Council to capture due to high support for the Imperial Council among the viceroyalty's inhabitants.
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The prison camp, officially designated as the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez, opened on 26 November 1934 and the Imperial Council began transferring political prisoners to the prison camp. Beginning in late 1936, the prison began holding National Council prisoners of war as well as political prisoners. Its first director was Brigadier Rodolfo Fernández Joss and it was garrisoned by the 37th Infantry Brigade. Fernández Joss died in 1943 and was succeeded as director by Brigadier Arturo Leoz Loris. He served as the prison's director until December 1949—a few months after the end of the civil war—when the 37th Infantry Brigade was relocated to Guazapa. The prison's administration decided to have the 19th Imperial Guard Regiment assume the prison's garrison rather than assigning another Creeperian Army brigade. Colonel Ricardo Berrocal Dávalos succeeded Leoz Loris as the prison's director and he served until his death in 1972.
The National Council was aware of the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez's existence since before it opened in late 1934 and multiple military operations were planned to attack and capture the prison, freeing all of its prisoners in the process, however, none of the plans were ever seriously considered or had preparations made as they were not considered to be strategically important. In 1944, the National Air Force launched a reconnaissance operation to photograph various Imperial Council military installations across the viceroyalty of Zapatista. The Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez was among one of the military installations photographed on 12 December 1944. The National Air Force's photographs of the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez remain one of the only publicly accessible aerial images of the prison due to strict Creeperian government censorship regarding such images.
Throughout the Creeperian Civil War, an estimated 100,000 prisoners died at the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez. Most of the prisoners died due to abuse, neglect, starvation, suicide, or extrajudicial executions. The Imperial Council often used the prison as propaganda to coerce National Council soldiers to defect or desert, and conversely, the prison was also used in National Council propaganda to portray the Imperial Council's treatment of prisoners of war in a negative light towards its foreign supporters. In late 1949, once the Imperial Council liberated several death camps utilized by the National Council's Special Task Squadrons, the Imperial Council ceased using the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez as propaganda in order to focus on the atrocities committed at the National Council's death camps.
Post-civil war period
After the end of the Creeperian Civil War in late 1949, none of the prisoners of war and political prisoners incarcerated at the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez were released. Instead, the Creeperian government formally decreed that all of those incarcerated at the prison would be sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of "waging war on God" and "waging war on the Empire". Over the following decade, thousands of prisoners were extrajudicially executed by the prison guards as they had not formally been sentenced to death.
In 1952, the Bureau of Prison Administration (a division of the Ministry of Law Enforcement) assumed joint management of the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez along with the Bureau of Civilian Defense Management (a division of the Ministry of Defense). The prison's name was also officially changed to the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility to reflect the change in management. That same year, the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility transformed from primarily housing prisoners of war and political prisoners to housing individuals convicted of several capital crimes (referred to as "regulares") or those who had been sentenced to death (referred to as "fins"). Although these types of prisoners had been accepted in small quantities since 1944, the 1952 change in the prison's intake policy led to regulares and fins composing a majority of the prison population by 1960. By 1970, around 80 percent of the prison's population were regulares and fins, while the remaining 20 percent were political prisoners who continued to be sent to the prison and what remained of the National Council's prisoners of war.
Early-Mara War
Battle of Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor
Current functions
Infrastructure
Prison facilities
The Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility has a total prisoner capacity of 48,000 divided over 24 cell blocks with 20 cells each. Each individual cell officially has the capacity to hold up to 100 prisoners, however, each cell only contains 50 bunks. Regarding each cell only having half of the bunks required to hold 100 prisoners, Ledesma Soriano remarked that "the prisoners can figure out their situation like civilized humans, or they can fight and kill each other over the 50 bunks like the barbarians they are". Each cell also only has one toilet and one sink, and the water which feeds both is controlled by the guards.
Capacity and overpopulation
At its opening, the Imperial Military Internment Camp–Tuxtla Martínez had a prisoner capacity of 5,000. Capacity was later expanded to 7,500 in 1938, to 10,000 in 1941, and to 12,500 in 1946. Despite these increases in capacity, the prison camp was constantly over capacity. The prison camp first went over its designed capacity in 1936 when its population exceeded 5,000 due to the sudden influx of prisoners of war to the prison camp. When its capacity was expanded to 10,000, its population at the time was around 10,900; the 1941 capacity increase did not adequately address the overpopulation issue. The same occurred in 1946, when the capacity was expanded to 12,500 while the population was around 13,700.
Surrounding geography
The Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility covers 100 acres (40 ha) of land 9 miles (14 km) southwest of the twin cities of Tuxtla Martínez and Panachor in the viceroyalty of Zapatista. The prison is located at the southern base of the Tuxtla Martínez volcano, an extinct stratovolcano, and on the northern shoreline of Lake Tlilteateskatl, which is sometimes nicknamed "Lake TMP" due to its immediate proximity to the prison.
Prison administration
The following table lists all six military officers who have served as the director of the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility since its establishment in 1934. The includes their military rank, year of birth and death, dates assumed and left command, and their military branch of service.
| Director (Birth–Death) |
Term of command Duration in years and days |
Branch | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Brigadier Rodolfo Fernández Joss (1887–1943) |
26 November 1936 |
24 May 1943 |
 Army
|
| 6 years and 179 days | |||||
| 2 |  |
Brigadier Arturo Leoz Loris (1888–1953) |
24 May 1943 |
14 December 1949 |
Army
|
| 6 years and 204 days | |||||
| 3 |  |
Colonel Ricardo Berrocal Dávalos (1894–1972) |
14 December 1949 |
30 March 1972 |
 Imperial Guard
|
| 22 years and 107 days | |||||
| 4 |  |
Colonel Guillermo Barrios Tirado (1921–1986) |
30 March 1972 |
4 May 1984 |
Imperial Guard
|
| 12 years and 35 days | |||||
| 5 |  |
Colonel Benjamín Alarcón Illescas (1945–2011) |
4 May 1984 |
20 October 2007 |
Imperial Guard
|
| 23 years and 179 days | |||||
| 6 |  |
Colonel Onésimo Ledesma Soriano (born 1969) |
20 October 2007 |
Incumbent | Imperial Guard
|
| 17 years and 116 days | |||||
Security and secrecy
The Creeperian government maintains a high level of secrecy regarding the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility citing national security concerns and counterintelligence. The Creeperian government has requested global mapping companies to censor the prison on their satellite maps of the world under threat of being blocked in the country, although several mapping companies have published uncensored satellite images of the prison. All aerial photography of the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility is illegal, with persons found guilty of photographing the prison from an aircraft facing up to life imprisonment on charges of espionage. Photography inside the prison is limited only to government approved images; all photographs inside the prison taken without government consent are illegal. Very few photographs or video records of the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility's exterior exist. In 2013, 1 minute and 31 seconds of video footage of the prison's exterior taken by filmmaker Edmundo Machado López was leaked online, becoming one of the few confirmed video recordings of the prison's exterior to be publicly available.
The Creeperian Imperial Guard patrols and maintains a 1 mile (1.6 km) perimeter around the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility where unauthorized personnel are not allowed entry. The Creeperian Imperial Guard are authorized to use deadly force against anyone caught inside the perimeter under suspicions of engaging in terrorist activity. Civilian access to the Tuxtla Martínez volcano has been closed since 1972 to prevent individuals from approaching a high vantage point near the prison outside of the 1 mile (1.6 km) perimeter. Since 1990, at the request of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Law Enforcement, the Imperial Aviation Directorate has maintained an indefinite temporary flight restriction covering a 3-nautical-mile (5.6 km) radius around the prison up to 18,000 feet (5,500 m) where civilian aircraft are not permitted entry. The directorate has also established a 25-square-mile (65 km2) restricted area around the prison.
Human rights abuses
Mass killings
Throughout the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility's operation, its military garrison has committed several mass killings of its inmates either as a form of collective punishment, to intimidate the prisoner population, or sometimes even as a form of population control to keep the prison from becoming too overpopulated.
Imprisonment of foreign nationals
Prisoner abuse
Living and working conditions
International relations
Criticism and condemnation
In popular culture
Notable inmates
Current inmates
The following table lists some inmates incarcerated at the Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility who have received significant news media coverage regarding their arrest or their incarceration. The table also lists their prisoner number, their nationality, their prison sentence, and the crimes for which they were convicted of; capital crimes are indicated with a "(c)".
| Inmate | Nationality | Sentence | Conviction(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Uriel Bar-on (born 1986) TMP20190098 |
 Pavulturilor
|
3,486 years imprisonment | |
 |
Costanzo Borroni (born 1978) TMP20160657 |
 Salisford
|
2,705 life sentences plus 5 years | |
 |
Mario Cárdenas Guillén (born 1962) TMP20080716 |
 Creeperopolis
|
716 years imprisonment | |
 |
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 1967) TMP20070001 |
Creeperopolis
|
18 life sentences | |
|
Antonio Castañón Salinas (born 1989) TMP20090281 |
Creeperopolis
|
582 years imprisonment |
|
 |
Rodolfo Infante Jiménez (born 1997) TMP20200123 |
 El Salvador
|
788 years imprisonment |
|
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Makhmud iben Kabir (born 1980) TMP20190847 |
Pavulturilor
|
4 life sentences | |
|
Vladimir Kruschev (born 1996) TMP20190732 |
 Morova
|
8 life sentences[1] | |
 |
Edmundo Machado López (born 1980) TMP20090629 |
Creeperopolis
|
1,205 life sentences plus 65,451 years | |
 |
Seán Mac Stíofáin (born 1970) TMP20140635 |
 Paleocacher
|
5 life sentences plus 67,000 years | |
|
Sylvestro Morales Castillo (born 1989) TMP20130066 |
Creeperopolis
|
13 life sentences |
|
|
Agustín Salas Valle (born 1996) TMP20180710 |
Creeperopolis
|
373 life sentences |
|
|
José Villacorta Sandoval (born 1981) TMP20080078 |
Creeperopolis
|
2 life sentences plus 234 years |
|
 |
Mario Villanueva Madrid (born 1965) TMP20150783 |
Creeperopolis
|
2,015 life sentences | |
Former inmates
| Inmate | Nationality | Sentence | Conviction(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) |
Gregorio Cárdenas Hernández (1963–2003) TMP19930455 |
Creeperopolis
|
5 life sentences plus 58,000 years | |
|
Víctor Elizalde Cabañas (1998–2022) TMP20170011 |
Creeperopolis
|
86 life sentences | |
.jpg) |
Jacobo Graciani Juderías (1955–2022) TMP20200593 |
Creeperopolis
|
376,349,382 life sentences[2] | |
 |
César Librado Legorreta (1981–2021) TMP20120031 |
Creeperopolis
|
87,487 years imprisonment | |
|
Ignacio Morales Morales (1960–1988) TMP19830030 |
Creeperopolis
|
5 life sentences |
|
 |
Alexander Ramírez Umaña (1977–2020) TMP20200194 |
Creeperopolis
|
1,200,430,508,677 life sentences |
|
See also
Notes
- ↑ Creeperian pronunciation: [fasiliˈðað koreksjoˈnal ˈmaksima ðe ˈtuɣst͡ɬa maɾˈtines ˈpanat͡ʃoɾ]
- ↑ Creeperian pronunciation: [ˈkampo impeɾiˈal ðe inteɾnaˈmjento miliˈtaɾ ˈtuɣst͡ɬa maɾˈtines]
- ↑ Creeperian pronunciation: [ˈsentro peˈnal t͡ɬilte.atesˈkat͡ɬ]
References
- ↑ Herrador Piñón, Gustavo (6 September 2019). "Gaceta Creeperiano – Hombre Morobeño Condenado por'Blasfemia y Ateísmo" [Gaceta Creeperiano – Morovan Man Sentenced for Blasphemy and Atheism]. Gaceta Creeperiano (in Creeperian). San Salvador, Creeperopolis: Gaceta Creeperiano. p. 2. Retrieved 15 June 2021.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
- ↑ Tejón Yagüe, Mario (11 July 2020). "Gaceta Creeperiano – Juicio de Alcalde Anterior Jacobo Graciani Juderías" [Gaceta Creeperiano – Trial of Former Mayor Jacobo Graciani Juderías]. Gaceta Creeperiano (in Creeperian). Chalatenango, Creeperopolis: Gaceta Creeperiano. p. 1. Retrieved 15 June 2021.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
External links
- Creeperopolis (1 March 2020). "Tuxtla Martínez–Panachor Maximum Correctional Facility". IIWiki (in Jackian). Retrieved 15 June 2024.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
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