SEPA: Nuestro Señor de los Milagros. Walter Saxer
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asa o tempo mentres flúe o río polas húmidas terras do bosque tropical das zonas centrais do Perú. Nas beiras do Sepa atópase un conxunto de casas, cabanas dispersas, unha aldea «de ribeira» normal nesta parte do mundo, pero nesta historia o que se ve non é o que parece. Tal comunidade ribeirega é un cárcere. Sepa, Nuestro Señor de los Milagros, foi unha colonia penal ao aire libre establecida en plena selva e coñecida como o Inferno Verde, onde o Goberno peruano enviaba os delincuentes máis perigosos como forma suprema de castigo. Sepa, Nuestro Señor de los Milagros, é o nome dunha colonia penal ao aire libre creada polo Goberno peruano en 1951, no cadro dos labores nacionais de colonización dos territorios amazónicos mediante o fomento das prácticas agrícolas entre os presos, nun terreo de 37.000 hectáreas situado nas selvas das áreas centrais do Perú. O documental de 1987 dirixido por Walter Saxer é a única fiestra aberta a esta colonia penal experimental peruana, onde non entrou nunca unha cámara e sobre a que pouco se escribiu. Foi clausurada en 1993, aínda que nela ficou un único preso ata acabar de cumprir condena no ano 2003. Na actualidade estes terreos aprovéitaos o Instituto Nacional Penitenciario do Perú (INPE) para a cría de gando. A película comeza coa violenta retransmisión en directo dun dramático motín que ten lugar nun cárcere de Lima, El Sexto, onde os presos que protagonizaron o levantamento toman e matan reféns, clamando as súas esixencias de seren recoñecidos como seres humanos no medio das aterradoras condicións que se crean nas prisións estatais. As secas terras que rodean Lima logo quedan atrás e entramos, cruzando ríos e bosques, nas exuberantes paisaxes que conducen ao Sepa. Aquí os presos teñen liberdade para pasear, liberdade para traer á familia, liberdade
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ime passes as the river flows through the humid lands of Central Peru’s rainforest. On the river banks of the Sepa River is a group of houses, sparse huts, a normal “rivera” village in this part of the world, but what you see is not what it seems in this story. This river bank community is a prison. Sepa, Nuestro Señor de los Milagros was an open air penal colony in the middle of the jungle, known as the Green Hell, where the Peruvian Government sent its most dangerous criminals as the ultimate form of punishment. Sepa, Nuestro Señor de los Milagros is the name of an open-air penal colony created in 1951 by the Peruvian Government within the national effort to colonize the Amazon territories by promoting agricultural practices amongst inmates in a 37,000-hectare piece of land in the jungles of Central Peru. The 1987 documentary directed by Walter Saxer is the only window into this experimental penal colony in Peru, which no camera has ever entered and little has been written about. The penal colony was closed in 1993 even though one single inmate remained to finish his sentence there until 2003. Today this land is used to raise cattle by the Peruvian National Penitentiary Institute (INPE). The film begins with the violent live broadcast of a dramatic mutiny of a prison in Lima, El Sexto, where uprising inmates take and kill hostages, outcrying their demands to be recognized as humans in the terrifying conditions that state prisons create. The dry lands surrounding Lima are quickly left to enter the lush landscapes through rivers and forests that lead to Sepa. Here inmates are free to walk, free to bring their families, free to dance and cook together. Some, damaged by drugs and the abuse received in other prisons are able to regain their humanity. An American inmate claims Sepa is an example
