His first day of service was July 9, 2022, within the framework of the Garantías de Independencia event: a gathering that brought judges, officials from the Ministry of Justice, public defenders, and cooperativism leaders to Penal Unit No. 15 of Batán to share a locro in what was then still "a space under construction" between Liberté and Victims for Peace. Two months later, on September 3, 2022, that space officially opened as Restaurante Punto de Paz: with tables, waiters, a varied menu with pizzas and pastas, two lunch shifts, and QR payment. What changed was who made it run: all its staff were serving sentences and were part of the project's management team. Punto de Paz became, for one year, the first restaurant in the world entirely managed by people in prison.
It was not an idea of Liberté alone. It was a joint creation with Victims for Peace, the association founded by Judge Mario Juliano and currently coordinated by Dr. Diana Márquez. That alliance —Liberté + victims' association— is what distinguishes Punto de Paz from any other prison productive enterprise in the world.
The inauguration: a table that dissolved distinctions
The inaugural event was a highly symbolic moment. For the first time in the history of the Argentine penitentiary system, crime victims and people serving sentences shared a table inside a maximum-security unit.
Institutional and social leaders from the prison field were present, the widow of Judge Mario Juliano, victims from different regions of the country, and, of course, the people in prison associated with the project. Dr. Diana Márquez coordinated the day and contributed the perspective of Victims for Peace from the very idea of the project.
Cold cuts, mini pizzas, sandwiches, and cake for dessert were served. But what defines the spirit of the place was not the food, but a scene: during the inauguration, two people in prison were cooking, and one of the invited victims approached to help. The rest of the attendees assumed that they were also part of the restaurant's internal team. The distinction dissolved in the human connection.
The concept: RESTAURANTive
The project's name is not a forced metaphor. Punto de Paz is both a restaurant —with its menu, dining staff, shifts, cash register— and a restorative act —a meeting between victims and offenders, repair of bonds, recovery of dignity—. Restorative justice, that paradigm so often discussed in academic forums, becomes here a very concrete experience: sitting down to eat together.
How it worked: four gestures that change everything
The diner sat at a table, consulted a menu, chose their dish, was served, paid for what was consumed, and ate. That sequence of gestures —routine on the other side of the wall— acquired enormous symbolic value inside the prison.
The furniture —tables, chairs, utensils— had been donated by Dr. Diana Márquez, president of Victims for Peace, who also contributed her previous experience in the gastronomic field to structure the operation. The capacity was about 40 diners per shift, in two lunch shifts (11:00–13:00 and 13:30–15:30) plus breakfast service.
The menu
Punto de Paz incorporated dishes that previously did not exist in the prison's food offering:
- Pizzas, calzones, and empanadas
- Pastas: sorrentinos, ravioli, gnocchi
- Grilled meats and oven-roasted chicken
- Appetizer platters and sandwiches
- Desserts: ice cream and cake
For special occasions and visits, the menu varied. The locro on July 9, 2022 —served to judges and officials gathered at the Garantías de Independencia event— remained as a symbolic prelude to the restaurant's formal inauguration.
100% digital payment
Cash is prohibited in Buenos Aires prisons. That is why Punto de Paz operated exclusively with digital means: bank transfer and QR code. This made it one of the few 100% digital enterprises operating inside prisons in the country.
The team
The restaurant operated with a small and highly coordinated team. Seven people in total, all in prison and integrated into the project's management team: two in dining room, two in cash and billing, and three in kitchen. The kitchen staff also worked for the rotisserie; the cashiers, for the adjacent store.
Supply: final node of an internal chain
Punto de Paz was not supplied in isolation. It was the final node of a productive chain articulated within the same prison: the internal store provided raw materials and beverages, the rotisserie prepared preliminary dishes, the bakery supplied breads and pastries, the garden delivered fresh produce, and a secure corridor agreed with the SPB guaranteed access to authorized wholesale suppliers.
What happened at these tables
In the year it was open, Punto de Paz was much more than a restaurant.
It was the venue for weddings between inmates and their partners, accompanied by extraordinary civil operations that allowed issuing IDs for inmates and their families. Not only were family bonds strengthened: documentary situations affecting basic rights were also regularized.
It hosted institutional meetings: the aforementioned locro on July 9, visits from judicial officials, ministerial representatives, and penal system leaders. And, above all, it was a place for restorative encounters: crime victims from different regions —often convened by Victims for Peace— sharing dishes and words with people serving sentences.
Fourteen months of a successful restorative project
Punto de Paz operated as a restaurant from July 9, 2022 to September 4, 2023: fourteen months in which it demonstrated, every day, that the formula was possible. Pizzas, pastas, locros, weddings, judges conversing with people serving sentences, victims approaching a table the system did not expect to exist.
The physical space remained standing. Today it functions as a community dining room: a simpler version of the original project, but the restaurant's imprint remains there, in those who inhabited it, those who visited, and every dish that passed through those tables.
Why it matters
Punto de Paz was the only restaurant in the world with comprehensive management by people in prison, and the only one that actively integrated crime victims in its design, inauguration, and daily operation.
It was not a dining hall. It was not a work workshop. It was a real restaurant, with its menu, shifts, staff, cash register, and customers. And it operated inside a maximum-security prison, for 365 days.
In a country where public conversation about security almost always begins and ends with punishment, Punto de Paz offered a different response: restoration is possible. And it can be done sharing a table.
A joint creation of Liberté and the association Victims for Peace · General coordination: Dr. Diana Márquez.
