July 31, 2009

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A Short History of Coiba Island – Panama’s Prison Colony

By Matt Atlee

During the military years in Panama just referring to Coiba Island struck fear into any Panamanian. Coiba Island was a prison island like Alcatraz Island or Devil’s Island; it was the home of dangerous criminals and the prison where the Panamanian military sent its most vociferous critics. Most prisoners never returned from Coiba Island; they died from disease, malnutrition, physical abuse or murder. The history of the island and what happened there over the years is still shrouded in mystery.

The penal colony on Coiba Island was founded in 1912 and closed in July of 2004, when the last 8 prisoners were taken from the island. If you visit Coiba it’s obvious to see why the island was chosen as a penal colony; the island is in a remote location off the coast of a remote part of Panama.

The waters around the island are unpredictable and aggressive sharks patrol the deep waters between the island and mainland.

The island is also very large: ten miles wide and thirty miles long; it’s the largest island on the Pacific coast of Central America. The island is mostly covered in thick jungle and is hilly, with steep cliffs that would kill anyone who fell from them. Escaping from the island would be just about impossible, unless you were picked up by a boat along one of the many remote beaches that line the island.

Who decided that the island should be made a prison island in 1912 is something that I’ve never been able to find out. In all likelihood the island was part of a large estate on the mainland.

Most of the land on the mainland across from the island is owned by large landowners from the towns of Tole, Sona and Santiago. So the government would have had to buy the island from a large landowner before turning it into a prison colony.

After the government decided to turn the island into a prison they built a central compound that had a church and small clinic. Along with the central compound there were nine or ten small camps dotted across the island where prisoners worked on small farms.

Prisoners had to grow their own food. Prisoners worked long hours and were given one meal a day, at noon, and then marched back into the fields to work.

Some prisoners, especially political prisoners, were tortured relentlessly. During the military years in Panama the prison was turned into a kind of concentration camp for political opponents of the regime.

Probably the most famous of these political prisoners was a young Marxist Philosopher who taught at the National University, named Floyd Britton. Britton was a revolutionary who was pushed into the limelight in Panama when he led a revolutionary movement in 1959 that took to the countryside and occupied a mountain – Cerro Tute – near the small town of Santa Fe de Veraguas.

Cerro Tute, like Coiba, is in a very remote location, and it took a while for the Panamanian military to get to Cerro Tute, when they did they were forced to retreat in the face of the armed students, until the students surrendered, escaped like Britton, or were never seen again.  Some believe that the students were attacked by large pumas or ocelots that live in the forests of Cerro Tute.

By the time Torrijos became military dictator of Panama in February of 1969, Floyd Britton was teaching Philosophy at the national university. He was one of the first people to be arrested when Torrijos took power and he was taken to Coiba Island where he would die thirteen months later.

Few prisoners ever escaped: it’s been reported that some were able to make the 16 hour walk through the jungle to the far side of the island – the side nearest the mainland – and swim across to the mainland, or have a boat pick them up along the coast.

But most prisoners died if they tried to escape; either they were carried off by the ocean currents or disappeared into the thick jungle on the island.

Today the island is a UNESCO World Heritage sight and a popular place for tourists to visit. It’s easier to get to the island today then when it was a prison colony. Boats to the island leave from El Tigre de San Lorenzo and in some cases from Santa Catalina, a popular surfing destination for tourists.

Visitors can stay on the island at a small ranger station. The station has a few cabins and a small kitchen where a cook prepares traditional Panamanian food. It would take several days to explore the island and you would need a guide to do so. Who knows what you might find in the remote forests of Coiba: there’s a rumor that a treasure was kept somewhere on the island.  Coiba is home to some of the most beautiful beaches and diverse range of plant and animal species in all of Panama.
Written By Matt Atlee

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