To start a new week, we looked at a couple of stories connected with breaches of the law.

It’s never a good idea to fall foul of the authorities and find yourself chucked in clink  – even more so if you happen to be abroad.

One luckless Briton caught with a small amount of cannabis on his person at La Paz International Airport is 39-year old Back-packer, John Henshaw, who found himself being promptly and unceremoniously carted off to San Pedro Correctional Facility, an establishment in which you would never want to find yourself.

San Pedro Correctional facility operates very differently from similar establishments to be found elsewhere.

Inmates don’t even get allocated a cell – no you have to pay for that – and food as well. 

There are no guards as such, so the inmates run the show with cells and food provided to the highest bidder. If you have the cash you can buy your way to a more comfortable sentence by grabbing a spot in one of the posher areas, where residents can lock out the riffraff at around 9pm on a nightly basis, the time when violence and stabbings occur in the less desirable parts of the facility.

Some cells go for as much as $30,000 but you have to sign a sale-purchase agreement with the previous incumbent with whom you may be invited to sign up to an official property title deed.

Affluent inmates even snap up cells as an investment. 

At the other end of the spectrum are what are described as “coffins” with 5 occupants crammed into tiny areas, but even these cost around $300 and if you can’t afford that, you can always rent.

Incredibly at one point inmates even turned San Pedro into a tourist attraction after realising they could cash in on the curiosity of holidaymakers, by showing them around the place.  At its height, 50 tours were taking place on a daily basis.

But backpacker John is more likely to find himself sleeping in corridors, a seriously dangerous place, or an induction cell for a minimum of 5 days before being able to bid for his own space.  

The British Embassy are reportedly “drip-feeding” him just sufficient funds to avoid him being robbed whilst incarcerated there. 

What’s more John will have to wait for at least 90 days before authorities will even consider his case. On top of this, and at the end of his stay, he can expect to receive a bill for the water and electricity that it will have been deemed he used during his stay.

In the second hour we heard about a woman who might also find herself behind bars.

We’ve heard similar stories from Ireland and the USA but now Erika de Souza Vieira is being questioned by police in Rio de Janeiro after she wheeled 68-year-old, Paulo Roberto Braga into a bank to sign for a $3000 loan, already approved by the bank.

Unfortunately he was in no fit state to sign the papers as it has now been established that he had been dead for about 2 hours.

In spite of this she pushed a pen into the man’s hand saying: “Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign. If you don’t sign, there’s no way. I can’t sign for you, it has to be you. What I can do, I do.”

“Sign it so you don’t give me any more headaches, having to go to the registry office. I can’t take it anymore,”

When there was no reaction she said, “He doesn’t say anything, that’s just how he is,” adding: “If you’re not okay, I’m going to have to take you to the hospital.”

At that point, one of the bank assistants said, “I don’t think he’s feeling too well,” an opinion with which a second assistant readily agreed.

In consequence they called an ambulance and when the paramedics arrived they concluded that the man had indeed already been dead for a couple of hours.

The cause of the man’s death is unknown and police are also trying to establish for sure that the woman was in fact even related to the dead man.

An officer in charge of the investigation stated that it was clear that the man must have been dead for at least 2 hours before he was wheeled into the bank and that this must have been clear to the woman, who has yet to be charged with any offence.

In spite of the forensic determination, the woman’s lawyer persisted in arguing that the man was indeed alive when he arrived at the bank and that his client was shaken and traumatised by the incident.

Provided I can keep out of jail, I hope to see you once again tomorrow,
Scott