Palacio de Lecumberri

The Palacio de Lecumberri is a building in the Colonia Penitenciaría Ampliación in the district of Venustiano Carranza of Mexico City. It was built in 1885-1900 as a prison and had that position until 1976. The prison was at that time known as " Palacio Negro" ( Black Palace). Today the building houses the National Archives with the most important documents for the history of Mexico. The name of the building was taken over by a neighboring street, which was named after a former property owners. In his more than 75 - year prison history get only two or three attempts to escape, in which also parts of the security personnel were involved.

History

Because the prison of Belén was no longer sufficient for the Mexican capital, which already had about half a million inhabitants in the late 19th century, was begun in 1885 on the then still located on the outskirts of San Lázaro terrain with the construction of a new prison, the had a construction period of 15 years and 2.5 million pesos cost. It was opened by longtime Mexican President Porfirio Díaz on 29 September 1900, was in his early days as the most modern prison in Latin America. But it was not long until the institution fell into disrepute and was given the pejorative nickname "Black Palace ". The convictions - especially at the time of Porfirianischen dictatorship - were often purely arbitrary and reached the height of injustice than to command of General Victoriano Huerta on February 22, 1913 in the rear part of the prison, the then President Francisco Madero and his vice president, José María Pino Suárez were shot.

But the prison conditions were increasingly inhuman. Although the prison was designed for 740 inmates were in the last years of its existence on a regular basis between 3,000 and 5,000 prisoners therein. The most feared area was called " El Apando ", a foul-smelling hole with feces and vermin filled. There, prisoners were detained for several days or weeks in small cell without light, ventilation, bathroom and with minimal food supply. In addition, parts of the staff and prisoners were corrupt and often against violent.

Famous prisoners at 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, who since 1956 lives in Mexico Colombian writer Álvaro Mutis and the radical union leader Demetrio Vallejo and Valentín Campa. Even the revolutionary Pancho Villa was imprisoned at the Palacio de Lecumberri. The official charge was horse theft and actually wanted General Huerta 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 only to the 1970s! ) Prisoners managed to escape from Lecumberri. But this tradition is not without controversy, as there are also reports that Villa was moved before his escape in the prison of Santiago Tlatelolco and he had escaped from there.

Officially, the American Worker Dwight man, which after 75 years of existence of the prison Lecumberri on 17 December 1975 managed to escape was only the second (and perhaps actually the first one? ). Worker came on December 8, 1973 after his conviction for drug smuggling after Lecumberri and escaped two years later, disguised as a woman. His wife Barbara had smuggled him the utensils for this purpose in the prison, but it must be assumed that some of the staff was involved in the escape. Anyway, 15 guards were soon convicted of aiding and abetting escape.

A few months later there was again a successful breakout, when the prisoners Alberto Sicilia, José Gossi, Luis Antonio Bravo and Alberto Hernández of the cell 29 from Block L in April 1976 dug a tunnel through which they escaped. Three of them have already been taken in the first days, but this case also aroused the suspicion of using by parts of the prison staff and the amalgamation of organized drug trafficking with the Mexican authorities. The flight through the 40-meter long tunnel fell into the public even more discredited, as the press reported on 30 April 1976 that Sicilia had bribed the head of the guards from the cell block L with 2.5 million pesos.

By presidential decree of 26 May 1977, the conversion of the prison to the National Archive ( Archivo General de la Nación, short AGN ) was adopted, which was opened after five years of renovation work on 27 August 1982.

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