Dokument #1140301
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
La Esperanza Prison popularly known as the
Mariona prison - as it is located in the town of Mariona, which
borders with the Capital of San Salvador - houses male prisoners
and it has presumably been during the years notorious for the
harassment, mistreatment and even torture of some prisoners. In the
1980's it seems housed not only common prisoners but most of the
political prisoners as well. [Information obtained by verbal
communications with a representative of the Salvadoran Human Rights
Commission (Toronto), on October 25-26. Phone (416) 482-2754.] "As
of mid-September 1983, Mariona Prison had 376 Decree 507
prisoners..." [Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for
1981, Department of State, Washington D.C., February 1984, p.
556. Decree 507 instituted the State of Siege in December
1980.]
2)
During most of the indicated period, El
Salvador was under a state of siege which granted the armed forces
a legal basis for the exercise of extraordinary authority in
combating insurgency, which presumably meant the legal right to
arrest without a warrant. [Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1981, February 1983, p. 491.]
3)
Apparently overcrowding has been the rule
in the Mariona Prison, as it was designed for approximately 800
inmates and by 1986 it was housing some 2400, approximately 1000 of
whom were designated as 'political prisoners'. ["Waiting for
Justice: Treatment of Political Prisoners under El Salvador's
Decree 50", International Human Rights Law Group, Washington, D.C.,
March 1987, p. 86.]
4)
Also, during the aforementioned dates, the
Mariona prison is reported to have housed several prominent
political prisoners from the Hydroelectrical Workers Union
(Sindicato de Trabajadores Empresa Comisión Ejecutiva
Hidroelectrica del Río Lempa) after a strike in August 1980,
some of them remained detained until 1984. [See Amnesty
International, Report 1984, pp. 151-2.] A series of hunger strikes,
it seems were held inside by inmates and outside by their relatives
to pressure the government in releasing the prisoners. [Information
obtained by verbal communications with a representative the
Salvadoran Human Rights Commission (Toronto). See also Amnesty
International, Report 1981, Amnesty International Publications,
London, 1981, p. 143. ]
5)
There have been reports that during the
said period, prisoners from the Mariona Prison were allegedly being
transferred from prison to prison presumably with the aim of not
just intimidating but even torturing them. [See Amnesty
International Report 1983, p 135.]