Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-24
BY JOSE FERNANDEZ


BY JOSE FERNANDEZ
Worse than the grimy Iabyrinths of
San Juan de Ulua or the mephitic dun
geons of Siberia; more horrible than
the fetid chambers OF the bastile, the
cesspool walls of Andersonville or the
plague infected Black Hole of Calcutta,
Is the sickening, death enshadowed
Belem prison of the City of Mexico.
To every liberal Mexican, every writ
err, thinker, soldier, statesman or patri-
OF who is subject of Diaz, yet who
differs conscientiously from the Diaz
principle of government, the very men
tlon of Belem is sufficient for a shudder,
a furtive fear, a CONFUSION of disgust
and horror.
To the initiated, Belem is synonymous
with all that is loathsone, tyrannical,
unjust Yet so extensive and profound
is the popular fear of 1t that those who
have served a sentence in its holes are
forever silenced; those who know of its
horrors dare not to speak of them
dreading that the slightest utterance
against the cruelties of the place may
lead to another sentence there; or
worse still, and often probable-to
death. For in Mexico, whoever lifts
his voice against the government, or its
institutes, is what is known as rev
olutionist."
A revolutionist in France was mar
tyr, a hero beloved of ALL In Russia
he is a patriot, and a lover of right
and liberty--in the eyes of the outer
world. But in Mexico revolutionlst Is
an anarchist; not because he is opposed
to the government, but because he is
opposed to Diaz, or to the Diaz system.
Punishment Is Death
And all revolutionists are punished
nv death, Sometimes 1t Is summarily
imposed; often, perhaps, 1T is meted out
to them through the warped and TWIST
ed channels of court, or by some part
of a system subsidized and controlled
by other parts; but more often death
comes to them in weird and myster1-
GUS manner; their friends are never
quite certain. They are found dead
shot through the heart by many Dull
let's; or hanging to an isolated tree by
the neck, or floating In the waters OF
lake to whose shores they were lured.
In whatsoever form, for the revolution
ist it is death And those who ought to
know have said, on the American side
of the boundary line, that every enemy
of Diaz is a revolutionist. There Is no
other definition recognized in the law
books of that strange repuDnc-a gov
eminent founded on the bones ana
ashes of unnumbered Aztecs who fell
victims before the terrific onslaught OF
that greatest of pirate explorers, Cor
tez.
Those who have never heard of Belem
prison are to be congratulated, for they
may still have good impression OF
Mexico; but those who know of 1t must
90 through life wondering what infa-
mics will not be tolerated Only those
who have served a sentence there can
realize a part of it's atrocious horrors.
It's former inmates are afraid to de-
nounce it; its present inmates cannot,
and those who never have served in 1t
are incapable. So Belem prison has
continued to exist for many years. Win
no voice against it.
For the first time since the institution
was founded, a number of pictures OF
the interior of the prison have been
taken. By what methods they were
produced, and at what risk the camera
was snapped, need not be mentioned,
hut suffice 1t to say the pictures pub
lished in connection with this article
are the first ever given to the world,
and the writer is the first who has
dared to raise a protest against IT'S
practices.
An Old Structure
The Belem building is an old colonial
structure where ordinarily are confined
from 5000 to 5000 prisoners, though It's
capacity is for less than one-half or
that number, and at times its inmates
have reached into more imam iUUU Inc
site of the building is about 50xl0O yards
and is in the front of a building used
by the criminal and correctional courts.
Into the narrow dormitories of the pris-
on are stuffed at present about 5000
prisoners, 1000 of whom are serving
terms and the remainder awaiting
trials.
Both the convict department and that
In which the untried prisoners are kept
are exceedingly crowded The 5000 pris-
oners who are awaiting trial are locked
during the long, sultry night hours in