Oso Blanco Documentary

Built in 1933 with a capacity of 1,132

inmates, holding up to 2,400.

Birthplace and home to the 2 (two) gangs which

govern inside prison walls and is home to some...

...of the most violent criminals of Puerto Rico.

Confined since 1957.

To be locked up in here is really sad,

When you stepped in,

the first thing they shouted was "fresh meat"!!!

And if you didn't fight back and earn respect,

you became somebody’s bitch.

To be confined: v. To keep within bounds.

To shut, or keep in, especially to imprison.

Here they would grab you between

two or three of them,

rip your clothes off,

throw you down on to the bed,

two inmates would stand by the gate,

on the look out,

while the other inmates

raped you, inside the cell.

That brought war, it brought death.

Then you would get even,

killing them one by one.

That happened to Tony Iglesias.

He was beaten very often,

he was this short.

He couldn't defend himself, he was very skinny.

He memorized their faces and once out,

made a deal with one of the guards.

He got the pictures of all the inmates...

...so every time one of them got out, he knew.

He'd dress up as a woman and

offer the newly freed men a ride in his Cadillac.

They would get in.

At that point, Tony would tie them up

and shoot them point blank in the head.

Then he'd leave a note saying,

"He died for being an abuser".

That's how he killed 25.

Pillar of the Neta Association. 28 years confined.

Freed to society 1 year ago.

Since the new inmates were on their way in,

everybody was bidding on them.

"That guy, this guy's mine, this one's mine..."

One guy says, "Those two are my sons

and if you want them, you buy them from me."

He sold his sons for two cartons of cigarettes.

When the kids got in the cellblock,

they greeted their father...

the father introduced them to the crew...

The kids were given cigarettes and shit...

The guys were like, "Hey come over here look at this,

come look out the windows, lets hang out..."

The first kid was taken to the bathroom,

the other one was taken somewhere else...

They were fourteen, one after the other.

I saw those two kids come out with feces

and blood all over.

They ran to their cells and hanged themselves.

Agent #2 / Project of Security Cameras.

Department of Correction and Rehabilitation

One of the most morbid circumstances

we've had throughout our history...

...tells the tale of the murder of an

inmate during the gang wars...

...precisely here in Oso Blanco State Penitentiary.

It so happens, that this inmate was

cornered in one of the housings...

...they killed, dismembered him, and left him

scattered throughout the quarters.

Sadly, the encephalic extremity

of the matter, meaning the state of the head...

was taken downstairs and the inmates

started playing soccer with the head.

At one point, the order was given for all

inmates to go back to their quarters...

...and the ball stayed on the court.

The inmates called a correctional officer...

"Officer, look, the ball, we need it for tomorrow.

Don't let the other gang take it."

So, the officer decides to go and get

the alleged ball.

As he gets closer to the ball, he

realizes that the alleged

ball is nothing other than

the head of an inmate.

So much was the emotional and psychological

impact of the officer, that he ran off the court.

Some say he ran through the gates,

screaming and shouting...

...and had a nervous breakdown. That's the

psychological situation of that individual.

I'm going to go back to the circumstances of death;

the act of killing someone.

Right here, where we are is where

they found the first dismembered body,

in all the penal history,

in and out of Puerto Rico.

They found two hands in a box, the neck

in another and the legs in another.

What about the head?

It was smashed against the wall inside a pillowcase.

At times, you woke up at 3am for no reason,

you couldn't sleep because of the tension in the air.

And suddenly you saw a leg there, a piece

of head here and an arm there...

Get it...people chopped up!

In penal institutions, deaths ...

...are extremely violent and morbid.

The death of a person implies a

psychological trauma for that person,

because he has the knowledge that

he is going to die, that he'll be murdered.

If we take those legends and stories and

apply them to a prison like Oso Blanco...

...I would have to tell you that, from 1973

to the time they closed this institution...

...there are allegedly around 61 'escapes',

who have never been accounted for.

Stories tell that those missing people were

murdered in a brutal manner.

The bodies were never found because the inmates

dismembered them.

They put them on the floor, walk over them, causing

the soft tissue to be torn away from the bone...

That soft tissue is flushed down the toilet,

sucked out and gone.

The bones are placed in pillowcases and

smashed against the walls...

...until the bones are crushed down to 2 to 3 inches.

That is then flushed down the toilet, gone.

Those bodies never received neither their extreme unction,

nor even prayers, because there were no bodies.

Those inmates are in limbo, straying, like souls in pain.

And those souls in pain are the ones

that make legends of this institution.

Founding leader of the Neta Association.

"I don't want to embrace my life...

...while my country is not free"

Sombra had the habit of

fighting against the police.

He claimed he was the Ayatollah Khomeini,

the separatist leader Albizu Campos,

and Che Guevara.

He started shouting, NETA!

Puerto Rico must be free!

Neta Association

"Fight, share and live in harmony"

"You will not kill by contract"

"You shall not steal nor kill through abuse"

The shout of honor of a humble warrior.

They ask me, "You want to look after Sombra?"

I said "How, I'm an inmate?"

"No, no, no. So you can look after him."

"Protect him, so the guards don't beat him."

It was all arranged. They spoke to Sombra,

he agreed, and that was it.

I was now in charge of Sombra's back.

We started unifying ourselves. Sombra would

keep on shouting, NETA, NETA, NETA!!!

The association was for us to live in

harmony and to fight the jail system.

To fight against the inhuman conditions

that we had lived in, in the past.

Back then you were thrown naked in a dungeon.

You could spend up to 10 years in the dark...

...depending on the crime you committed.

Get it?

They wouldn't let you out for nothing.

You were in there for 24/7.

The guard who locked you in was the only one

who could open your gate.

And if he went on vacations, that meant that you

would stay in the dungeon till he came back.

This is where about 20 inmates sleep. Here, thrown on

the floor, in terrible conditions, as you guys can see.

I cover myself with that towel...

Here, one inmate sleeps on the floor.

As you guys can see, all around us is sewage water.

That chunk of metal hanging; that can fall

on someone at anytime.

This is the cellblock in its worst condition,

we don't have any ventilation.

The problem we have with the clothes is that we have

nowhere to put them, so we have to hang them.

They get wet when it rains.

We only have two toilets and one sink.

No one can live in these filthy, overcrowded

conditions. It's ghoulish. It constitutes what is in here,

the mess and the crime that feeds inside here.

No one outside knows about these conditions.

It has forced us to live in conditions that

are not even suitable for animals.

From the 80’s until today, the filthy, inhumane

and overcrowding at Oso Blanco unleashed what is...

...known as the Morales Feliciano case. The inmate,

now dead, sued the government

under Gov. Hernández Colón, not only for the

overpopulation, but also for the lack of medical attention,

the lack of a classification system and for

the lack of attention to a deteriorating infrastructure.

Neta warrior, brotherhood of pain. 11 years imprisoned.

Live, struggle, and share in harmony.

Those are the principles of the Neta association.

It was founded for that, to counter the

abuse from the correction administration...

...and from the Insectos that have

always been our enemies.

Group 27: Formed by Rafael Ayala aka "El Manota".

Notorious for its criminal actions of abuse,

sexual violations, stabbing, stealing and killings

of its own members, women, children and the elderly.

Because, rapists, rats and abusers of women

and elderly don't mix here.

My association doesn't tolerate that.

If you're out there on

the street bro, don't fuck with the code of ethics,

'cus it gets ugly, really ugly.

I've always said that under my administration,

we do not recognize the existence of gangs.

That's not the same as denying their existence. They do exist.

Right now in the system we have

The Netas, The 25's, The 27's,

Los Huevos, Los Nuevos, Los Bacalaos,

The Non Affiliated, The New 25's, The New 27's.

All these criminal groups exist,

but I cannot give any of them...

...any authorization, regardless

of their motives and reason.

The Netas, The 25's, The 27's, all

the groups we have mentioned need...

...to share in taking advantage of the

resources offered by the government.

Nowadays, they want to mix the

groups up... Make them live together.

When they do that,

the administration has blood on its hands.

The same issues they had back in the day.

There are going to be a bunch of dead souls roaming around,

who perhaps would have had

a better death.

We need to be separated. We can't live with

The 25's, The 27's, understand? We are our own group.

They have their way of thinking and we have ours.

But when they put us together, the government

forced us the same nightmare.

If the focus of the gang we all know as The Netas,

is to improve the conditions

of the prisoners, then I'm all for it.

But if their focus is to improve

their finances by supporting...

...illegal acts inside the penitentiaries,

then I cannot support that.

In that interview Mr. Pereira acknowledged and

accepted the corruption that exists inside prison walls.

Co-founder of the Neta, 24 years confined.

Carlos stood up so there were no more problems.

He said, "We have to fight the system, not between us."

But the Insects didn't want that.

What they wanted were problems.

That's where it started.

They killed one Neta,

so the next day three 27’s (Insectos) were found dead.

Then it started.

That about riots... Neta started with seven.

It was 7 because nobody wanted problems, ah...

But when the killing started, ah...

everybody had to take a knife.

If not, you were gone.

If you weren't with us you had to go.

Or you would die.

You know what the guards did to us?

They would lock us in our cells.

They would frisk us...

And if they would find the knives,

they would be taken from us...

At noon next day, they would give

the knives to the Insectos.

They would leave their cells

open and go to lunch...

The Insectos would come in and kill you.

They differentiate themselves by the internal process of

leadership, how they handle the illegal contraband,

and by the interests created inside and outside. For

example, Group 27 doesn't have a representative outside.

The Netas do. It’s what's known as the

Association Pro Rights for Prisoners.

The form in which they deal with contraband, their

geographical positioning and territories,

their claims make them different. Structurally though,

they are very similar in their penal code.

Thou shall not be a rat.

Thou shall not steal.

Thou shall not get involved in the affairs of others.

Thou shall not covet an inmate’s wife.

Thou shall not steal food.

To snitch is equivalent to a death sentence.

Basically, these are the rules that apply to all the groups.

In some gangs there are more, others have less.

But basically those are the rules,

because that's the structure...

...they chose for survival

in a penal institution.

They have their own signs,

their own flags, their own colors.

These are their hymns. This is

how they represent themselves.

I'm showing you Group 27, J.80, June of 1980.

Group 27 was born.

"Fuck the police" because we're against the establish-

ment. Because the establishment hurts me, my ideas,

my resources, my businesses. It controls illegal

substances, which are what makes me rich."

That's what they base their arguments on.

We have physical evidence of finding up to

three cell phones inside the rectum of an inmate.