Our man in a Mexican prison: “Anyone can come here - from children to a mistress”

Latvian citizen Dmitry Sukharov has been in a Mexican prison in Cancun for the eighth year. He received ten years for trying to smuggle eleven kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Europe. The drugs were discovered in June 2011, when Dmitry was trying to fly to London. Specially trained dogs found them in packages of chocolates.

Фото: Depositphotos

Dmitry assured that a certain Lithuanian, whom he met in Colombia, asked him to deliver “sweets” to London. But he did not know about the contents of the parcel. But the Mexican prosecutor did not believe him - and Dmitry received a prison term. Although he was incredibly lucky: ten years and one hundred days is the minimum punishment for this kind of crime. The maximum is twenty-five years and three hundred days.

Today, Dmitry is waiting for release on parole, very much hoping to be released in December 2018. He plans to stay in Mexico, because no one is waiting for him in his homeland, and in Cancún, while he was in prison, his son was born.

Dmitry dictated everything that is written below onto my phone, which he borrowed from a cellmate. Having a telephone in prison is prohibited, but as he himself says, you can get anything here for money.

I was born in Riga on July 7, 1985. We had a normal family, me, my brother and my mom and dad. I was 9 years old when my mother killed my father - an unintentional crime. We lived in the village at the time and gave her a suspended sentence of 2 years. We moved to Riga. They began to live there. And after some time my mother disappeared. She left and never returned. I went to see my grandmother, but my brother was taken to the hospital, and from there to an orphanage. I grew up, began to study, work, and lived in the village. I was fifteen or sixteen years old when I met my future first wife. She was older than me, and I was still a teenager, but somehow this didn’t bother her... We started a relationship. Then she got pregnant, I was very young, I didn’t want a child. In general, I probably unconsciously saw her more as a mother, and she wanted a child. And a daughter was born. But we still got divorced.

I went to Riga, worked, opened my own company, we delivered goods throughout the Baltic countries. Well, then what happened happened. I ended up in Latin America and was arrested there. I remember how I was detained at the airport, I sat there, waiting for them to sort it out and let me go. And then they took me somewhere. We leave the building, and there are about eight or nine cars there, soldiers, police, dogs... I also thought to myself - damn, what a pure movie, and all for my sake, as if I were such an important criminal!

Until the consul showed up, I kept thinking it was a joke. They brought me from the airport to the prosecutor's office. They didn’t let me take anything with me, they just locked me in a cell. And there is a window and two concrete shelves - and that’s all. I was still smoking then and asked the security guard in English for cigarettes. And everyone seemed so nice and good-natured to me. There they fed us three times a day, and even gave us a bottle of lemonade. And on the second day they handed me a bunch of papers and said “sign!” But nothing is clear there. They tell me something in English, but I don’t understand. In general, then they found a translator, I even remember the name - Elena Doehmel, she seems to be German from Ukraine. And when she told me how much time I was facing - a minimum of ten years and a hundred days, a maximum of 25 years and 300 days, my tears began to flow. I immediately remembered both my ex-wife and daughter. I always visited them, it’s not like I just abandoned them and left. They opened a case and started looking for the Lithuanian who gave me the bag. Well, then there’s the prison in Cancun.

Dmitry with a child. Photos from the personal archive

They brought me here at night. This morning I looked around and thought - where did I end up? All the dark ones are so emotional, screaming, the music is screaming. I thought, this is hell... I couldn’t get used to the climate for two years. For two years I was sick with everything. The whole infection stuck to me. I couldn’t get used to the heat, I couldn’t get used to the fact that they only wash themselves with ice water. I couldn't get used to the food. It was especially depressing, and still depressing, that there were no vegetables, fruits and sugar. Any Mexican will immediately make alcohol out of all this, and therefore it is impossible. And I really want our cottage cheese. Either with salt and green onions, or with sugar - it doesn’t matter, I like either one.

How are our days going here? Yes, the same. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday are our days for visitors. Anyone can come, from children to a mistress, as long as they are registered in your name. In general, so you understand, we don’t have a closed prison here, but a village for two thousand people. On any day around 7:40 in the morning there is a check - the duty officer comes and calls your name and surname. At eight the cells open. In general, one wall of the chamber is a solid lattice, another has a window, and two ordinary walls. Shower and toilet in the cell. We can always be seen through the bars here, but they close them at night. When they open, we can go anywhere. Some go to church, some go to the library, some knit hammocks to sell, some handbags. You can sell everything on the days when visitors come. Oh, you should see the prison on days like this - it's just a fair! They sell everything, including sweets - after all, many people bring children, and for those who sit here, this is a way to make money.

We have here those who, in a Russian prison, would probably be called “shnyr”, we call such people “talachos”, they go for food. The food here is poor, if there is no help from relatives, then it is very difficult to survive on it. For breakfast can give two eggs, sausage and, for example, four pancakes. For lunch, which is from twelve to one o'clock, they often give soups. Chicken potatoes. In general, there is not much meat, but such fat pruning occurs in food. For dinner, usually a bun, porridge or spaghetti.

If there are no visitors, then you can play football, volleyball, basketball, until five o’clock in the afternoon we can do whatever we want. Someone works in the laundry, I used to work there too. Laundry costs ten pesos per kilo. But the main thing is to check in advance that there is no rain and everything can be dried. Today we had a football tournament - camera versus camera. We lost. It was zero-zero, but they lost on penalties. There was even some kind of prize for this. The cells usually close at eight. After the third cleaning. Yes, we clean the cameras three times a day.

There are seven people in my cell now and there are five clocks. They are all concrete and fastened to the walls. I sleep on the floor, because I have to pay for the bunk, but why should I pay if I leave soon? Bulbs, too, each with their own and for their money. Light turn on somewhere in the nine or ten in the evening.

I learned Spanish here because there was no other way. First I bought a Spanish-Russian dictionary here, but it wasn’t useful to me because they speak a slightly different language. In the dialect of casteano. At first, I simply didn’t know anything at all—I confused both forks and spoons. Hell, just hell - these are memories of the first two years. And then I met one Mexican girl. She came up herself. And we started a relationship. I didn't have anyone. Before I flew to Colombia, I broke up with my girlfriend. She took my phone, although it was Colombian, and wrote, “Let’s start everything from scratch.” So I started... But then I was in a relationship for a year and a half. Then I got sick and was transferred to another prison, after some time I asked to go back to Cancun. And then one day a guy who was sitting with me came up to me, I knew him since 2011, and said, “My sister wants to meet you.” I say no, I gave up, I don’t want to. But he insists, he gave her the phone number. On November 28, 2015, she came to see me on a date. And some feelings flared up in us. Even then I thought that if I got pregnant, I would definitely stay in Mexico, I would have a family and a home here. Although I was terribly afraid of it. In December 2016, our son was born. We are still in a relationship with her, although we fight, we try to hold on because of our son. We fight because there is literally a fence between us. It’s only fifteen minutes to her house, but the fence...

Photos from the personal archive of Dmitry

The most dangerous thing in prison is when the cartel starts fighting against the cartel. And here it’s just like in war - daggers, fire, stones fly, sticks fly, everything flies. I've fallen into this ten to fifteen times already. It all ends with calling the police, the army and tear gas. The first time I experienced this was when I was first brought here. They locked us in a cell with eleven people, and we slept on the floor. Lawyers came there immediately. When I was brought in after two days at the prosecutor's office, I was placed in a cell with 11 people. Lawyers just come there. They come, and we are on the floor, and no one is bothered by it. I spent about 11 days there. And then on the fifth or sixth day I heard a noise - they were shooting! I watch people outside the window going down the stairs. Everyone is running from law firms. It's such a rush that it's terrible. I then knew how to ask “what happened?” in Spanish. And suddenly they tell me - for love. I think - wow for love. Therefore, it turned out that one powerful cartel was engaged in extortion, even to the point of hunting families - they hunted the families of the prisoners, demanded money from them, and the people could not stand it and staged a real battle there. Then the feds arrived, dispersed everyone, I saw they collected a black bag with telephone numbers - they found about 60 of them in prison. They kicked me out - what are you looking at, get out of here! These kind of alterations are scary and dangerous - I won’t lie.

The doctor in prison is, even a few. But medicine does not reach us, in fact. Overdue tablets. If something good has come, then everything is for sale, we just will not be given anything. I was seriously ill here a couple of times, and for the first time I was still shown to the doctor, and the second was simply sent to another prison.

For money in prison you can practically live with your wife. There are sessions and they can last up to two days. Fifty pesos cost every twelve hours, which is about two and a half dollars. Clothes are not a problem here; if a family comes, they will bring everything. Again, drug addicts often sell theirs inexpensively.

We have people sitting here from all over Latin America, there is a person from the States, there is Alexey Makarov from Russia, who killed a Mexican. In the more than seven years that I have been here, I have met three more Russians. Everyone is in the cells, there is no division into more serious and less serious crimes. It all depends on how you behave and whether they want you in this cell or not. There are people who spend forty years in prison, and there are people who spend twenty years, all together. We have a famous producer sitting here who killed his wife in a hotel. In my cell there are two Colombians for drugs, and also Mexicans for theft, rape, murder. Everything is interesting here with rape. Of course, I don’t completely believe it, but they assure me that if a girl doesn’t like something, like literally touching her knee, then she writes a statement against you that you raped her - and that’s all! I don’t know if this is true or not, but we really have a lot of rapists here.
Every day I go to the stadium here to stretch my bones, I just walk there like everyone else. I tried to get a job in carpentry, but they didn’t hire me. Those who worked there before work there. Their families look for orders outside, and they make them there. He gave Russian language lessons in our library at one time. I go to church. I'm actually used to this hell. At first I couldn’t get used to the noise, they all listen to music here, and it’s all Mexican, but it’s different, and it comes out of every corner... We have TVs here, by the way, and DVD players. But phones are not allowed. And glass and ceramics are not allowed, well, of course, drugs and alcohol.

I have nowhere to go back. My ex-wife forgot about me, my daughter forgot, everyone in my homeland forgot about me. Nobody needs me there. That's why I want to stay in Mexico with my son. And now I'm trying to stay. I need to register the child in my name in order to receive local documents. But there is no money. A lawyer from the immigration service came to see me here, he asked me for 12 pesos for all the documents. Of course, I don’t have that kind of money. After my release, I hope that local Russians will support me with work in Cancun. I know four languages ​​- Latvian, English, Spanish and Russian, and I can be the same guide. Mexico is very interesting with its pyramids and so on. Now it’s very difficult for me to support my family from prison. And it seems like there are a lot of acquaintances outside the prison, but there are no particular friends and therefore there is nowhere to expect help from. But I'm not such a bad person, I hope people will be convinced of this when I'm free. Sometimes I call the embassy myself. They never came here to see me - why? Now, however, they say that they are helping me with documents from Latvia, because early release is just around the corner. I really hope for it.

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