The Isabela Penitentiary Colony and Wall of Tears

Before the discoveries of the great scientist Charles Darwin, the Galápagos Islands were home to the barbaric Ecuadorian Penitentiary Colonies. One island housed the most treacherous of all the colonies, Isabela. For almost two decades, inmates were instructed to build a wall. Not just any wall, a meaningless, endless, and deadly wall that would take the lives of thousands. This wall became known by locals as the Wall of Tears. Only an informative panel at the site of the wall shares why the wall still stands. “The Wall of Tears is the only remaining evidence of a prison camp where abuse of power finished the lives of many prisoners," states the signage. "This futile construction is preserved in memory of those hardships endured by those forced to build it, during this particular moment in Ecuadorian history.” 

The human habitation of the Galapagos Islands, located off the coast of Ecuador, began in 1807 with a marooned Irish sailor named Patrick Watkins. Watkins lived there for eight years before stealing a boat and returning to the mainland. Several others attempted to inhabit the islands, but none were successful until Ecuador's annexation in 1832. Led by General José Villamil, the Ecuadorian military struggled to decide what to do with the thirteen Pacific Islands. Villamil attempted to colonize the islands with little success. Colonel Ignacio Hernandez then hatched a plan, recommending the Galapagos transform into penitentiary colonies, or open-air island prisons. These colonies were established in 1837 on the islands of Floreana and San Cristobal. Due to dreadful living conditions and horrific treatment, wardens and prison officials battled numerous prison uprisings over the next century, with none being successful. In 1944, the Ecuadorian government decided a third prison was necessary. By 1946, the Isabela Penitentiary Colony was established in south Isabela.

From 1946 to 1959, the infamous Isabela Penitentiary Colony operated off the coast of Ecuador on Isabela Island of the Galapagos. According to Ecuadorian researcher Paula Rodas, the Galapagos already held a longstanding reputation. Mainlanders considered the islands "within the Ecuadorian imaginary as a place of exile and a place of pirates.” About 300 prisoners and thirty wardens were stationed at the new penitentiary. Wooden buildings built by the United States during World War II were used as housing. Living conditions were poor and food supplies were incredibly scarce. The majority of the inmates were outcasts, war criminals, and convicts and had been sent to Isabela to serve life sentences. The island was nearly impossible to escape from alive, with the surrounding waters filled with sharks and strong currents. With little to do on the island and a need to keep the prisoners busy, wardens tasked the inmates with building a massive, meaningless wall. 

The construction of the wall began at the end of the prison's first year. From sunrise to sunset, seven days a week in boiling temperatures, prisoners would collect heavy lava rock from a distant quarry and lug them back for construction. The inmates then began stacking the rocks one-by-one. Over twelve years, Rodas estimates that over 2,500 inmates lost their lives working on the wall. Due to a complete lack of basic medical care on the island, even minor injuries were proven fatal. Sudden wall collapses, heat exhaustion and infected cut wounds were some of the many ways inmates suffered these excruciating deaths. After several violent uprisings, including the hijacking of an American yacht in the mid-1950s, the penitentiary was abolished by the Ecuadorian government. The wall now stood over five meters high, approximately three meters wide, and about one hundred meters in length. As horror stories spread about the construction, it became known as Muro de las Lágrimas or Wall of Tears. 

Years after the penitentiary colonies shut down, the town of Puerto Villamil became a quiet, peaceful town. Many of the residents had lost relatives and friends during the construction of the wall. Local legends say that the wall is haunted by the unsettled spirits of those who were worked to death. It said that if you go to the wall past dusk, you will hear the wailing screams of those who perished. 

The Wall of Tears is now considered just another excursion for tourists on the Galapagos Islands. However, the wall itself stands for much more than that. It remains a reminder of an awful abuse of power and just how tragic an unjust inhumane imprisonment can be for all of Ecuador.

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