Resumo de Marching Powder

An excellent account of a very strange and dark place which initially shocks you in a darkly comic way only to ultimately make you feel sad, sick and despair for the human condition. Thomas McFadden, a young British man, gets caught smuggling cocaine out of Bolivia and is consequently flung into the infamous San Pedro prison. As a South American prison it has what you expect, filthy conditions, corrupt guards, terrifying inmates and, oh but so much more?.

Thomas is a very likeable man. From the first you are on his side as he finds his way in San Pedro. He comes across as a very genuine character and although he must have a fair insight into darker elements of the world through his drug smuggling business, he is completely out of his depth here. From the off he is in poor health after a couple of weeks in a holding cell whilst awaiting judgement. He is penniless and this is a big problem in San Pedro. This means he has no food, no cell and is already in debt to the prison major for his ?entrance fee?. With no money he is unceremoniously thrown through the gates into the concrete prison and as he stares around his new life beckons him. That first hungry, cold night he finds shelter in an outbuilding used as a latrine. And so he learns from day one how it works.

The book follows Thomas as he learns the system of San Pedro. Everything works on money as on the outside and so your place within the prison. Accommodation consists of two storey apartments in the four-star wing of the prison to the cramped conditions of four to a cell in parts of the prison where it is unsafe to be at night. There are doctors, pharmacies, shops with beer but all for a price. The surrealism of the place is heightened by choosing one of the restaurants to eat in and by the children playing hopscotch before leaving for school. And of course cocaine plays a big part of prison life. Indeed, its cell factories supply the finest coke to the streets of La Paz.

An expensive place to live when you include the constant bribes required to keep the guards friendly and most inmates have some form of income. As Thomas settles in he develops his prosperous guided tours of the prison for backpackers. Just as he finds some level of ease with the place and life doesn?t seem that bad, his luck turns and San Pedro is starkly seen for all its darkness and squalor.

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