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MARCHING POWDER

was never the same. Even when the media attention finally died off and tourists were allowed back in, I still wasn't able to run the San Pedro prison tours. During my two-month absence, the gangs had taken them over.

One of the reasons I didn't fight hard to re-establish myself as the main tour guide was Fantasma. In that year, he had his final court appearances before sentencing and he knew that he was going to be in prison for a long time. He told everyone that the devil had appeared to him and granted him a single wish. Rather than asking to be let out of prison, he said that he wanted to get his girlfriend pregnant. In the meantime, he became more and more violent. Rather than a suit and tie, Fantasma wore his designer sportswear and expensive sneakers to court. When reporters outside the court asked him whether he was sorry for what he had done, he replied, 'If I could, I'd do it again, motherfuckers.' On his way out of the court, he kicked at the journalists or knocked them out of the way and threatened to have them killed. Everything he did and said was reported in the media and read by the inmates of San Pedro. His girlfriend became pregnant and his reputation inside the prison grew.

The day of his final sentencing, Fantasma scratched, 'I will never repent' into the cubicle wall in the court bathrooms using his handcuffs. When the judge sentenced him to the maximum thirty years, he laughed and swore at her. With such a long sentence, Fantasma had absolutely nothing left to lose. Everyone avoided him even more, including me. This suited him well; by then he had developed strong ties with the guards and taxistas at the gate and he decided to take over the prison tours completely. I didn't protest. I didn't have enough energy to fight him. And to tell the truth, I didn't really feel like doing the tours anymore. I still felt very sad about Abregon and exhausted by my experience in La Grulla. Instead of the tours, I decided to spend more time on my own in order to stay out of trouble.

Gradually, the guards began allowing more tourists back into San Pedro. With the help of the gangs, Fantasma and the other tour guides continued to prevent me from running my tours, but every now and again, travellers came to the gates asking for me. My rep-