“The prison operated from 1902 to 1947. It was built to populate a strategically important area in the south of Argentina. The town of Ushuaia was created by traders and the prison administration. Most of the town's population were prisoners and guards. This prison was the center of urban life,” Carlos Vairo, director of the Maritime Museum and the Museum of Ushuaia prison, told Sputnik.
This penal colony only accepted prisoners who had been sentenced for life. The jail had five pavilions, each with cells between 1.5 and 2 meters wide. The prison also had 380 isolation cells with walls 60 centimeters thick.
Behind the prison walls, murderers famous for their cruelty are serving their sentences.
“Banks Mateo was born to a wealthy landowner’s family. He killed his entire family to inherit the estate. However, his act did not justify itself. He lost almost everything. Mateo murdered his siblings, cousins and nephews, a total of eight people,” said Vairo.
The most famous prisoner, Cayetano Santos Godino, also known as “Petiso Orejudo”, was caught when he was 16-years-old in 1912. He was an Argentinian serial killer who at the time terrorized Buenos Aires. The boy kidnapped children and tortured them in the cruelest way. He set little kids on fire, hammered their heads and beat them up. The offender died in his cell at age 44. According to official data, other prisoners beat him to death.
Political representatives have also been among the prison’s inmates. Simon Radovitsky, a Ukrainian anarchist, was imprisoned for an assassination attempt on the chief of the Buenos Aires police. After serving 21 year in prison, he was granted a pardon and immediately left the country.
“During the Spanish Civil War, he fought on the Republican side. He died at the age of 65. In prison he was subject to torture. He was just like another prisoner, Eduardo Sturla, a famous boxer from the 1930s. The guards beat him, and he defended himself. Once, he broke a guard’s jaw,”
The prison was shut down after 46 years in operation.
“It was a brutal place. Cells did not have toilets and heating was inadequate. Prisoners were tortured all the time. Undressed prisoners were left in freezing cells. The average temperature in Ushuaia reached 5 degrees Celsius. They had to feel the severity of the punishment, and the horror of the place,” exclaimed Vario.
Today, the prison is a cultural and tourist attraction. It is kept to preserve the memory of the founding of the city.
