El Frontón is a deserted island and former

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

off the coast of

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists o ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

Geography

Dry, deserted and without vegetation, it is located 7 km from the coast, to the west of

La Punta District La Punta is a district of the Constitutional Province of Callao in Peru, and one of the seven districts that make up the port city of Callao. It is located in a peninsula in the western part of the province and is almost entirely surrounded b ...

and to the southeast of San Lorenzo Island. It has an approximate area of 1 km² and is frequented by marine animals such as

sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...

s and the

Humboldt penguin The Humboldt penguin (''Spheniscus humboldti'') is a medium-sized penguin. It resides in South America, its range mainly contains most of coastal Peru. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos peng ...

History

From its viceregal era up until the early 19th century, the island was inhabited only by

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

s and

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

s, and was also known by the nickname of Dead Man's Island ( es, La Isla del Muerto).

Prison

The island became a

in the early 19th century, starting in 1917, under president José Pardo's second administration. Initially a maximum security prison, the island eventually housed political prisoners, such as future president

Fernando Belaúnde Terry Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...

, who, his imprisonment, made an unsuccessful attempt to swim to freedom. Hugo Blanco was also imprisoned on the island. The prison was renamed to San Juan Bautista Prison in 1981. During the

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregu ...

of the

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the gro ...

, the island was used as a prison for

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

militants. On June 18, 1986, the Shining Path led an uprising in El Frontón's ''Blue Pavillion'' ( es, Pabellón Azul), as well as two other prisons. The government of

Alan García Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (; 23 May 1949 – 17 April 2019) was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru The president of Peru ( es, link=no, presidente del Perú), officially called the president of the Republic of ...

treated the prisons as war zones, and the

Peruvian Navy The Peruvian Navy ( es, link=no, Marina de Guerra del Perú, abbreviated MGP) is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with surveillance, patrol and defense on lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean up to from the Peruvian littoral. Addit ...

was sent to the island. Many of the prisoners involved in the rebellion were killed, and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

claimed that evidence suggested that "no fewer than ninety" of the prisoners killed were victims of

extrajudicial executions An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether ...

. The behavior of the Peruvian Government during the uprising in the prison led to censure by the

Inter-American Court of Human Rights The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR or IACtHR) is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a huma ...

Notable prisoners

, two times president of Peru. * Hugo Blanco,

trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

politician. *

Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre (February 22, 1895 – August 2, 1979) was a Peruvian politician, philosopher, and author who founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) political movement, the oldest currently existing political p ...

, founder of the

American Popular Revolutionary Alliance The Peruvian Aprista Party ( es, Partido Aprista Peruano, PAP) () is a Peruvian political party and a member of the Socialist International. The party was founded as the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) by Víctor Raúl Haya de l ...

* Guillermo Portugal Delgado, a criminal who escaped by dressing up as a woman, then killing a

and swimming to shore.

In popular culture

The island is the main setting for Alberto Durant's 1991 film '' Alias 'La Gringa''', based on Portugal's story.James Higgins -Lima: A Cultural and Literary History - Page 193 1902669983 2005 El Fronton is the main setting for Alberto Durant's Alias "La Gringa" (1991), a film evoking the contradictions of Peruvian society by showing common criminals and Shining Path militants sharing the same space. Though founded in 1537, Callao is a relatively modern town, as in 1746 it was destroyed by a massive earthquake and a huge tidal wave which wiped out most of its population. So great was the wave that it is said to have reached as far as the eighteenth-century church of ..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:El Fronton Defunct prisons in Peru Internal conflict in Peru Pacific islands of Peru Landforms of Callao Region