Mexico to close infamous island penal colony

MEXICO CITY — Mexico will close a famed island penal colony off the country’s Pacific coast and convert it into a cultural and environmental education center, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday.

The federal prison on the largest of the Islas Marias will release about 200 of its approximately 600 inmates and the rest will be relocated to other prisons.

The prison founded in 1905 on Maria Madre passed through periods of infamous brutality. When Panama closed its Isla Coiba penal colony in 2004, Isla Marias was the last one remaining in the Americas.

He noted that the last riot there occurred in 2003 because it was over capacity. At that time there were 8,000 prisoners there, he said.

The island is about 70 miles off the coast of Nayarit state.