Carlos was born into an influential Roman Catholic family in the mountain capital of Bolivia, La Paz.
As a young man he worked his way into a good position within government offices, becoming Private Secretary to one of the ministers in the government of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. But in November 2007 his world fell apart. He was falsely accused of financial crimes and incarcerated in San Pedro Prison.
The prison lies close to the centre of La Paz, an imposing castle of huge blank walls hemming in a warren of narrow alleys and dark corridors. The cells, small and pokey, are crammed, row on row, around noisy courtyards. In a jail built for 800 prisoners, there is a population of 2,200.
No segregation, no warders
Families, facing desperate times when the husband is sentenced, have moved into the prison in an attempt to survive. It is like a village. There is no segregation of the inmates and there are no warders pacing the streets. The prison rules are dictated by those with power and the social norms patrolled by the prisoners themselves.
Carlos was thrown into the deepest part of the prison. He was beaten with water hoses. He made a bed of cardboard on the laundry floor. Vermin crawled around him. Even now his memories move him to tears.
Invited to church
It was on the third day of Carlos’s imprisonment that one of the Christians in the prison invited him to church. Carlos, in the depths of his despair, found Christ and joined the evangelical church, a group of around 40 believers which meets daily. Such was the depth of his newfound faith that when, after a month, he had opportunity to leave, he decided, despite the cost to himself, to stay in the prison to serve the church. Eventually, the church pastor came to him and told him that if he wanted to serve the church better, he needed to leave and be trained as a pastor.
Fee found
This wise advice led to Carlos reading about a Langham Partnership preaching seminar which was to take place in La Paz. He signed up and attended the first day. There was, however, a problem — to attend the course he must pay a fee. Where was he to find the money for this? He had none. Carlos went back to the church in the prison and asked the inmates to find the money to allow him to become a better preacher. Remarkably, this church of prisoners, many of them in difficult financial situations, agreed. Carlos was able to complete the Langham course. Now he puts his training in Bible-centred preaching to good use as one of the pastors of the prison church in which he was converted.
