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MARCHING POWDER

three members of the electoral committee, who were appointed by the voters to ensure that the elections were conducted fairly. On the day, they made sure that the ballot box was empty to start with and that no one voted twice or tried to slip in two pieces of paper. The votes were then read out, one by one, and tallied on a chalk board. I usually tried to disguise my handwriting on my voting slip. That way, no one ever knew which candidates I'd actually voted for and I could get more free stuff at the next election.

As each vote was read out, a cheer or boo went up from the crowd, depending on which candidate the vote was for.

'Viva Juan Ricardo!' or 'Arriba Jorge Mendez!' they would shout, then everyone would touch plastic cups and take a sip of their drinks. The losing side would stamp their feet in disappointment: 'Down with corruption.'

By the end, everyone was completely drunk, except for the electoral committee, who banned themselves from drinking. They weren't allowed to cheer, either, in case it made them look biased. Afterwards, there was always music and dancing, and more celebrating and commiserating.

The first time I witnessed one of these elections, I couldn't believe it. When Ricardo saw the look on my face, he put his arm around my shoulder and said, 'This is nothing, my friend. Voting when you are drunk is a tradition in South America. You know, in some countries, they have to make alcohol illegal for a week before elections in order to stop politicians from bribing voters.'

The annual elections for section delegate and treasurer weren't the only political campaigns conducted in San Pedro. Bolivian inmates were also entitled to vote in national elections, so many politicians came into the prison to win votes before the presidential elections. Most of them told us that we weren't bad people; the real criminals were walking free on the outside. Others said that they would repeal the gringo drug laws under which most of us had been charged.

'Bolivia doesn't have a drug problem. The United States does. They're the ones demanding cocaine. Why should you people be suffering in prison for something that is their problem?'

All the politicians promised to improve our living conditions if we voted for them, but nothing ever changed. For this reason, we took the internal prison elections far more seriously than the national elections.