Punta Carretas jail, Historical memory site in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Punta Carretas is a former penitentiary with thick stone walls, watchtowers, and early 20th-century architectural features typical of the period. The building displays a fortified layout designed for security and control of its inhabitants.

Built in 1915, the facility operated until 1986 and housed both regular inmates and political prisoners during Uruguay's military period. It served as a major site of detention and repression during the dictatorship years.

The conversion into a shopping center in 1994 shows how the city chose to repurpose rather than erase difficult history. This transformation reflects a deliberate approach to dealing with the past in Montevideo's urban landscape.

The former prison occupied six city blocks; the shopping center opened in 1994 after a renovation begun in 1991 by an Italian real estate consortium. A memorial stands on the esplanade in front of the entrance, declared a Site of Memory in 2021. The complex sits in the Punta Carretas neighborhood, reachable by public transport.

The 1971 breakout, known as "El abuso", was engineered by civil engineer Jorge Amílcar Manera Lluberas, who helped plan a 45-metre tunnel from cell 73 to a house at Solano García 2535. Around a hundred Tupamaros, three OPR-33 members, three FARO militants and five common prisoners left without a single shot being fired, and the escape entered the Guinness Book of Records.