(Mario Jasso/Darkroom)
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, inaugurated the Islas Marías Tourist Center on Friday night, which he hopes will become a world attraction focused on environmental issues and as a space for history lovers.
“It is really very satisfying to inaugurate this stage dedicated to recreation, the environment, and culture, in this emblematic part of the history and legend of Mexico, the former prison of the Islas Marías,” said López Obrador during his inaugural message. .
The penitentiary that once housed a large number of political prisoners, including influential Mexican writer José Revueltas, jailed several times for his left-wing activism, is now being converted into a sustainable tourism project.
In addition to villas to house guests, a restaurant, a cafe and the local beaches, the renovated site includes an arch named after Nelson Mandela, who spent some 18 years behind bars on Robben Island in South Africa before being elected president of the country.
Located about 100 kilometers from the western state of Nayarit, the Islas Marías penitentiary center was born in 1905 under the rule of dictator Porfirio Díaz and they were in almost constant activity until López Obrador closed them in 2019, shortly after beginning his term. .
The government has announced tourist packages to visit the islands, with ferries to the main settlement of Puerto Balleto starting next week. The center will be run by the Mexican Navy and is already part of a Biosphere Reserve protected by UNESCO.
Mexico has enjoyed a post-pandemic tourism boom, with international arrivals to the country up 56.4% or through the first 10 months of 2022 compared to the same period a year earlier, and up 7.3% compared to 2019.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle, additional reporting by Lizbeth Díaz; editing in Spanish by Aida Peláez-Fernández).
