El Frontón

El Frontón is a deserted island and former penal colony off the coast of Callao, Peru.

This article is about the island off the coast of Peru. For the island on the Mexico–United States border, see Fronton Island.
El Frontón Island
Isla El Frontón (Spanish)
Ruins of the former San Juan Bautista prison.
El Frontón Island is located in Peru
El Frontón Island
El Frontón Island
Geography
LocationPacific Ocean
Coordinates12°07′S 77°11′W
Area1 km2 (0.39 sq mi)
Administration
RegionCallao
Additional information
Time zone

Geography

Dry, deserted and without vegetation, it is located 7 km from the coast, to the west of La Punta District and to the southeast of San Lorenzo Island. It has an approximate area of 1 km² and is frequented by marine animals such as sea lions and the Humboldt penguin.[1]

History

From its viceregal era up until the early 19th century, the island was inhabited only by pirates and privateers, and was also known by the nickname of Dead Man's Island (Spanish: La Isla del Muerto).[2][3][4]

Prison
Shining Path poster of the prison at El Frontón

The island became a penal colony in the early 19th century, starting in 1917, under president José Pardo's second administration.[1][5] Initially a maximum security prison, the island eventually housed political prisoners, such as future president Fernando Belaúnde Terry,[1] who, his imprisonment, made an unsuccessful attempt to swim to freedom.[6] Hugo Blanco was also imprisoned on the island.[7] The prison was renamed to San Juan Bautista Prison in 1981.[8]

During the insurgency of the Shining Path, the island was used as a prison for Maoist militants.[9] On June 18, 1986, the Shining Path led an uprising in El Frontón's Blue Pavillion (Spanish: Pabellón Azul),[1] as well as two other prisons. The government of Alan García treated the prisons as war zones, and the Peruvian Navy was sent to the island. Many of the prisoners involved in the rebellion were killed, and Human Rights Watch claimed that evidence suggested that "no fewer than ninety" of the prisoners killed were victims of extrajudicial executions.[10][11] The behavior of the Peruvian Government during the uprising in the prison led to censure by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.[8]

Notable prisoners

The island is the main setting for Alberto Durant's 1991 film Alias 'La Gringa', based on Portugal's story.[12][13]

References
  1. Neyra, Marquiño (2017-02-15). "El Frontón, los fantasmas de una isla chalaca". La República.
  2. Arrambide, Víctor; Mc Evoy, Carmrn; Velásquez, Marcel (2021). La expedición libertadora: Entre el Océano Pacífico y los Andes (in Spanish). Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. p. 440. ISBN 9786123260699.
  3. Mayer, Dora (1938). El Callao en la época de su Centenario (PDF) (in Spanish). Lima: National University of San Marcos. p. 125.
  4. "V". ACTUALIZACION DE LA MICROZONIFICACION ECOLOGICA ECONOMICA DE LA PROVINCIA CONSTITUCIONAL DEL CALLAO - 2011 (PDF) (in Spanish). Callao: Municipality of Callao. 2011. p. 298.
  5. Hudtwalcker Morán, José Antonio (2021). "La Isla San Lorenzo durante la Colonia y el primer siglo republicano: economía, auge industrial y salud pública". Arqueología y Sociedad (in Spanish). Lima: PUCP. doi:10.15381/arqueolsoc.2021n33.e14125. ISSN 0254-8062. S2CID 238806247.
  6. Pennington, Richard (January–February 1995). "Nation Builder: The epic life of Peru's Fernando Belaúnde Terry, BAR '35". The Alcalde. University of Texas at Austin Alumni Magazine. Emmis Communications: 20. ISSN 1061-561X.
  7. Mora, Carlos (2007). Latinos in the West: the student movement and academic labor in Los Angeles. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-7425-4784-1.
  8. "Caso Neira Alegría y otros Vs. Perú". Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Archived from the original on 2009-01-05.
  9. (in Spanish) Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Las ejecuciones extrajudiciales en el penal de El Frontón y Lurigancho (1986).
  10. "World Prison Massacres". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on February 6, 2008.
  11. Weschler, Joanna (1993). The Human Rights Watch global report on prisons. Human Rights Watch. p. 93. ISBN 1-56432-101-0.
  12. "'Alias La Gringa' y El Búho". Trome. 2019-08-31.
  13. James Higgins -Lima: A Cultural and Literary History - Page 193 1902669983 2005 El Fronton is the main setting for Alberto Durant's Alias "La Gringa" (1991), a film evoking the contradictions of Peruvian society by showing common criminals and Shining Path militants sharing the same space. Though founded in 1537, Callao is a relatively modern town, as in 1746 it was destroyed by a massive earthquake and a huge tidal wave which wiped out most of its population. So great was the wave that it is said to have reached as far as the eighteenth-century church of ..
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