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A SPECIAL VISITOR

During this entire time, I didn't say anything to Sanchez. I didn't attempt to stop the others from taunting him - that would have been suicide - but I didn't join in, either. After a while, the politician noticed this. Sometimes, when we were filing past his cell on our way to the lista, he would be standing at his window and he would try to catch my eye. I smiled at him once or twice when the others weren't looking.

Sanchez had a lot of visitors - his lawyers, rich friends and some family members. They brought him the daily newspaper and books, and home-cooked meals. Sometimes, he would call the guards and send me his leftovers. I always shared these with the other inmates. Then, on top of my normal yard time, Sanchez started to invite me to join him when he had his.

The others called me a traitor, but when I got Sanchez to persuade the guards to give them extra yard time also, they began to see that having a politician as your friend could be more beneficial than trying to kill him.

Gabriel Sanchez's brother was in prison also. He lived in Posta and the family was given permission to get together for Christmas. Owing to the dangers involved in entering the main prison population, the politician applied to have his 'bodyguard' accompany him. That bodyguard was me, and it was the best Christmas I ever had in San Pedro.

In Posta, the rules were already relaxed because the inmates were rich, but at Christmastime, you wouldn't have even known it was a prison. There were streamers and party hats and people drinking and tables set up outside in the sun. They treated me like one of the family. They even wrapped me up a present - a bottle of Black Label scotch whisky.

To be honest, I wasn't much of a bodyguard. After a few glasses of whisky, I couldn't have protected anyone. To keep me alert, the politician's brother gave me a few puntitos. It was the purest coke I'd ever had in San Pedro. It seems that the people in Posta had very good connections. Officially, we were permitted to stay only until 6 pm on Christmas Day, but Gabriel rang the governor at his home and had our leave extended to the next day. Everyone kept drinking and dancing, while I sat in the corner bullshitting and doing cocaine with Gabriel's