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Mexico reinvents island prison as Pacific tourist draw

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday evening opened the Islas Marias Tourist Center, bidding to turn the decades-old federal prison in the Islas Marias archipelago into an environmental attraction and place for history lovers. "This is tourism for excursions, to explore, to live with nature," Lopez Obrador said this week. "To recreate history, it's something exceptional, extraordinary."

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The government has announced tourist packages to the islands, with ferries to the main settlement of Puerto Balleto starting next week. The center will be run by the Mexican Navy and is part of a protected UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.