Mexico’s navy will manage tourism in converted island prison

By MARÍA VERZA
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A small archipelago off Mexico’s Pacific coast that had been home to an island prison colony is finalizing preparations to receive tourists. Getting to Islas Marias, however, is currently a challenge for even the sturdiest tourist: a 4-hour boat ride in often choppy waters. But Mexico’s government plans to make things easier, putting the country’s navy in charge of tours, in the latest function assigned to Mexico’s armed forces under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Some people, like Beatriz Maldonado, are already imagining the voyage. When Maldonado was imprisoned between those “walls of water,” she thought she would never see her mother again.