The facility has been dubbed the ‘prison of death’ by many as it houses 12,000 of the country’s worst humans despite only having the capacity for less than half of that
The prison is home to thousands of Colombia’s worst people(Image: LightRocket via Getty Images)
Colombia is home to much of the world’s darkest elements of life – cartels, drug trade, human trafficking and murders. And inside its “prison of death”, 12,000 of the country’s worst are housed… together.
La Modelo in Botoga, Colombia, crams some of the country’s worst humans inside a facility known for violent riots often ending up in the murders of several of them. The prison is basically four long buildings inside a giant walled area located inside one of the roughest areas of the city called Centro Industrial.
And in somewhat of a dystopian outlook, it finds itself surrounded by nothing but storage units, warehouses and shipping containers.
It’s surrounded by nothing by warehouses and desolate wasteland(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Oddly, its name literally translates to “The Model”, and when the prison was built in 1957 it only had room for 5,810 inmates, but now holds more than double that without having gone through any renovation work.
Tempers run high inside La Modelo, where left-wing rebels and right-wing paramilitaries vie for power amid squalid conditions.
The place is overrun by cartel members(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
With space at a premium, prisoners can share 15ftx15ft cells with eight other men, escaping only for a couple of hours of exercise a week in a courtyard next to an open sewer.
According to several reports, the cells have no running water and the toilets are just a hole in the ground – this also doubles up as a shower… and a sink.
The horror establishment hit the headlines in 2016 when the dismembered bodies of 100 people were found in the sewers beneath it.
Riots are a frequent occurrence(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The grim finding was made during an investigating over whether or not bodies were under there after several mysterious disappearances – and it quickly became apparent that they were.
Caterina Heyck Puyana, a special prosecutor said at the time: “Towards the end of last year we began investigating the possible disappearance and dismemberment of an undetermined number of people at La Modelo prison in Bogota. The victims were inmates, visitors and people who had nothing to do with the prison. Their remains were thrown into the drain pipes of the sewer system.”
Officials have tried to fix issues, but to no avail(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
However, just four years later, a huge riot took place after prisoners were forced to stay in their cells when the pandemic took hold. Carrying knives, machetes and cement blocks, more than half of the prison’s inmates were involved and 24 were killed.
It was reported at the time that just 60 prison guards were looking after around 5,000 lags. Human Rights Watch claimed that guards had intentionally shot detainees during the riot.
Maybe stay out of trouble if you live in Colombia… (Image: LightRocket via Getty Images)
They said: “Most of the gunshot wounds described in the autopsy reports are consistent with having been produced with the objective of killing.
“The autopsy reports do not record any signs of gunshot injuries carried out with the intention of solely injuring individuals instead of killing them.”
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