Barbadillo: The prison holding three former presidents of Peru

On the outskirts of Lima, Peru, stands a prison facility like no other. It's latest inmate transferred last month is a former president, as all of who have been imprisoned in Barbadillo.

Five former presidents of Peru have been imprisoned in Barbadillo, a police headquarters which slowly transformed and adapted to be informally known as a facility to exclusively host those who once governed the country.

Martin Vizcarra, president of Peru between 2018-2020 did a stint of 22 days in the confines of Barbadillo before his sentence was overturned and he was released on Thursday.

A day after Vizcarra's sentence was overturned, another president received a second sentence to stay in Barbadillo.

Alejandro Toledo, who governed Peru between 2001-2006, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in a case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Presidents Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) are Barbadillo’s current dwellers.

The prison also housed former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) for 16 years on charges of human rights abuses before his eventual pardon and release in 2023.

Barbadillo's revolving doors are held tight against public scrutiny.

Peruvians can only wonder what is the special punishment, treatment or privileges which half a dozen of their former leaders may endure, considering the facility is not formally considered a prison.

With an official capacity of two, but with potential to be adapted to hold up to four inmates, Barbadillo prison is made up of two 800 square meter ‘cells’, each equipped with a bedroom, kitchen, dining room and garden.

“It’s a prison where you won’t necessarily see bars or bars on windows,” says Wilfredo Pedraza, a former president of Peru’s National Penitentiary Institute and current lawyer for Humala.

But Pedraza insists: “it's far from a gilded prison. In fact, it's not.”

Vizcarra indeed had the capacity do a live TikTok from the prison, where he described entering his ‘cell’ and seeing only a mattress, bed frame and couch.

He said his private bathroom had no hot water but that he did have access to a living room.

He told viewers that on his first night fellow inmate Castillo brought him fruit and a blanket while other presidential prisoners Toledo and Humala had food delivered to them from beyond Barbadillo’s walls.

During his 16-year long stint in Barbadillo, Fujimori is said to have enjoyed painting Andean landscapes, listening to music, writing his memoires and tending to plants in his garden.

In 2023, Fujimori was sighted at a dental clinic outside the prison. The prison agency admitted that he had been leaving the grounds for “several years”.

Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009 in connection with the slayings of 25 Peruvians by death squads in the 1990s. He was released from Barbadillo’s confines aged 85 on humanitarian grounds due to old age and ill health.

Pedraza says, “perhaps the only benefit is that their space is more generous, relatively. They have bedrooms that are about four by four meters. So, apart from that internal space, which I think is reasonable, they have nothing that other prisoners in the country don't, and they don't have a different way of life.”

Pedraza adds that the presidential inmates have no additional privileges.

“I have not seen areas with luxury finishes or carpets, or any other product that could be considered sumptuous or to be providing comfort to anyone.”

The facility also includes a special courtroom for trying high-profile figures.

Toledo received his second sentence while he appeared in this room, where he received a sentence for money taking bribes while in office from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction conglomerate.

In October 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years and six months for bribery and corruption.

Similarly, in April, Humala was sentenced to 15 years in prison for laundering funds received from Odebrecht to finance his 2006 and 2011 campaigns.

Vizcarra was under a five-month preventive detention order while he stands trial for alleged corruption while he was a regional governor in 2014.

He is accused of accepting bribes to favor local construction companies in public works tenders.

Joining Toledo and Humala, Castillo has been detained since December 2022, when he gave a televised speech in which he declared the dissolution of Congress and his intent to rule by decree.