Strange Islands

Reference Isla Coiba to the average Panamanian and cherished marine park and plentiful environment are probably not the image that pops into their mind. For modern-day citizens of Panama, stories, and memories of jail time, torture and death are more like to occur.

Coiba Island was Panama's variation of Devil's Island. From 1919 to 2004, the chastening nest on Isla Coiba was home to the country's most hazardous crooks along with house to lots of who discovered themselves on the wrong side of the political battle. At its peak, The Coiba Island Prison housed 3000 prisoners in about 30 camps spread around the islands.

"Los Desaparecidos" was the name provided to the hundreds or perhaps thousands who vanished in Panama under totalitarians Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega, never to be seen again. It is believed that a lot of these unfortunate people either ended up in unmarked tombs near the Coiba's chastening nest or to have actually been dismembered and fed to the plentiful shark population in its surrounding waters.

After the fall of the dictatorship, Coiba resumed its function as a criminal jail camp instead of political prison. In its final days, detainees were the run of the mill burglars, murders and rapists serving their debt to society by farming and ranching the island to offer for their own existence.

The prison is now closed. The detainees have actually been transferred to other facilities and anything of worth has actually been eliminated from the website. The remaining structure is slowly being reclaimed by jungle and the marine air. Its crumbling structures and merely marked tombs work as the only memorial to Coiba's dark history.

The worry of the prison and its residents unintentionally resulted in the conservation of the largest untouched jungles in the Americas. Because of the deterrent of the chastening nest, about 80% of the forest of the island stays virgin and unmolested. A real silver lining in one of guy's most dreadful minutes. Of course, with the jail gone and the supervising staff woefully underfunded, Coiba's next obstacle is fending off poachers preying on the plentiful wildlife of the park.