Colonia Dignidad

Colonia Dignidad . Settlement founded in Chile in 1961 by German immigrants. It functioned as a closed, sectarian enclave in which all kinds of crimes and illicit crimes were systematically committed. This insurmountable system was possible thanks to the work of a group of faithful friends, made up of civilians, soldiers, politicians, judges and businessmen. But above all due to the null intervention of the Chilean and German states, despite the complaints of sexual abuse against children and the testimonies of former political prisoners who gave an account of the kidnapping and torture experienced in the enclave during the dictatorship.

It was used for the kidnapping, torture, interrogation, murder and disappearance of people during the dictatorship in Chile. The testimonies of former political prisoners and some settlers confirmed this. On the other hand, investigations and judicial rulings determined that illegal graves were made inside the compound to hide the bodies of murdered political prisoners, which were later exhumed and made to disappear from Colonia Dignidad. Other dimensions refer to the training of the military and civilians, and access to weapons of war, bacteriological and chemical weapons and the preparation of an intelligence and counterintelligence file.

Summary

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1 Background
2 History
- 1 Private Social Mission in Germany
- 2 Benefactor Society and Educational Dignity
3 Colonia Dignidad
- 1 Repressive and criminal life system
- 2 First escapes and complaints of settlers
4 Chile in 1970
- 1 Colonia Dignidad and the Chilean military-civic dictatorship
- 2 Organizational chart of perpetrators in Colonia Dignidad
  - 2.1 Secret center for kidnapping, torture, disappearance and extermination
- 3 Repressive and operational practices of State terrorism within Colonia Dignidad
- 4 Circle of protection around Colonia Dignidad
5 Transition and unveiling of crimes
6 Villa Baviera
7 Sources

Background

The end of World War II meant the configuration of a new world geopolitical order. This period, known as the cold war, was characterized by the polarization of the world into two ideologically antagonistic blocs: the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) -communist- and the United States -capitalist-. Both powers faced each other in a non-warlike manner in order to impose an economic, political, social and cultural model on the rest of the world. In the case of Germany, one of the expressions of this conflict was the territorial division in two: the Democratic Republic and the German Federal Republic. The first under the influence of the Soviet Union and the second by the United States, England andFrance .

In social terms, one of the main consequences was the migration of thousands of Germans, product of the advance of the Soviet Union, from territories of Eastern Europe, which had formerly been occupied by Nazi Germany, towards the territories of Germany recently divided. .

History

Private Social Mission in Germany

The origins of Colonia Dignidad date back to 1954 in the German city of Siesburg, near Bonn, capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. There under the name of Private Social Mission, this organization was created dependent on Paul Schäfer , leader of the human contingent and his group of loyal followers. Schäfer was born in Siegburg , near Bonn , in 1921, and he had been a sergeant in the army of his country in the last days of the war, at that time, he presented himself as a psychologist and exercised undisputed leadership over the group, presumably based on his preacher conditions. With a Bible in hand and a Walther PPK at his waist. Funding for this organization was based mainly on the unpaid work of its followers in a chain of food stores owned by the foundation.

The large number of followers of the Private Social Mission is explained by the precarious context in which many refugees remained after the end of the Second World War . In this framework, the community life promised by the sect and its leaders offered them security and protection.

Despite its facade as a charitable institution, a few years after its foundation, Schäfer is accused and investigated for sexual abuse of children, which led to an arrest warrant issued by the Bonn prosecutor’s office, which is why he decides flee from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with his followers, who do not hesitate to accompany him due to the spiritual manipulation he exerted on the group, which allowed him to dominate and subdue them according to his opinion.

Benefactor Society and Educational Dignity

Decree of creation of Colonia Dignidad

After searching for a place to settle, Paul Schäfer and his followers arrived in Chile in 1961 .

With approximately 230 members, it is established in the south of the country, thanks to the support of the government of President Jorge Alessandri , through Arturo Maschke , Chilean ambassador to Federal Germany, who helps them with the purchase of the farm.

Finally, on September 21, 1961, the Benefactor and Educational Society Dignity was legally created . With this, the construction of the Colony and the agricultural and forestry exploitation of the property began, together with the configuration of a violent and repressive way of life.

Colonia Dignidad, now Villa Baviera, is a German enclave located in Chile, on a 16,000-hectare estate called El Lavadero . Located in the foothills of Parral, on the banks of the Perquilauquen River, in the VII Maule region.

Since its installation in 1961, its history was marked by secrecy and the installation of a repressive way of life, denounced both by the settlers themselves and by Chileans who experienced political repression during the civic-military dictatorship.

Its geopolitical location, away from the main cities but with an organization of power, allowed it to have marked areas of influence and control within neighboring areas and, for some passages in its history, the country.

This, added to the iron circle of protection and power that was being configured around Colonia Dignidad, allowed to maintain a criminal and repressive system of life under complex secrecy and impunity for almost 50 years, without the intervention of the Chilean and German states. Likewise, the construction of a façade of a benefactor society, anchored in a public hospital and school, generated a powerful circle of protection and defense with various social actors such as residents of the colony, politicians and military, among others.

Repressive and criminal life system

Children working in Colonia Dignidad

Since its installation, Paul Schäfer, in conjunction with the so-called hierarchs, a trust group, installs Colonia Dignidad in complete isolation, secrecy and internal surveillance. This begins the configuration of a life system of repression and internal control that will last for about fifty years. This regime, parallel to the rest of society, was systematically based on the sexual abuse of boys and girls, torture and the intervention of the private and public life of the inhabitants of the Colony. Family ties were destroyed by separating children from their parents and replacing their figure with that of aunts and uncles. In addition, under this system Schäfer separated girls from boys avoiding any contact between them and any sexual contact between men and women was prohibited. Those who deviated from this regime were brutally tortured:

Likewise, under the motto ” Work is worship offered to God “, slave labor was covered up in the Colony. Without pay or days off, the settlers built the hospital, the houses, the school, the storage warehouses, the crop fields, the fence, among other facilities.

In order to maintain the hermeticism of the property and the control of the settlers, they also built an iron internal spying and surveillance system, with modern technological devices, such as cameras, microphones and motion sensors, brought from abroad or created in the same Suburb. These devices were installed in the fencing that surrounded the property, in the trees, on the ground, in the electricity cables, among other spaces. The idea was to monitor, but also to prevent the entry of any person “outside” the enclave, as well as the flight of settlers.

First escapes and complaints of settlers

The secrecy achieved in Colonia Dignidad was breaking little by little. The escape of colonists broke the daily life of the sect and made known the violent regime imposed by Schäfer and the hierarchs. However, few managed to escape, since they not only had to evade the surveillance system and cross the fence that closed the Colony, but they also had to travel a long way to the German embassy in Santiago. In addition, the settlers did not have identity documents, nor did they speak Spanish, which made escape even more difficult. Likewise, due to the circle of protection and defense that was forming around the enclave, those who resorted to help were captured and then taken to the Colony, where they were subjected to medical torture treatments under the excuse that they suffered from mental illness.

However, and despite the violent system of domination and internal control, and the powerful external networks developed by the Colony in the different stages of its historical development, there were at least four successful escapes that achieved great public notoriety: Wolfgang Müller in 1966 , Hugo Baar in 1984 , Georg and Lotti Packmor in 1985 and Tobías Müller with Salo Luna in 1997 .

Each one of them provided new information and systematically denounced the criminal regime in Colonia Dignidad. However, the protection networks around the German enclave were so effective that for many years these complaints did not impair their functioning.

Chile in 1970

The global atmosphere of social transformation and the demand for greater rights developed in the context of a world stressed by the cold war. In Latin America, this process had milestones such as the Cuban Revolution (1959) and the presidential election of Salvador Allende in Chile (1970).

Allende and his coalition called Unidad Popular, promoted a program of profound social reforms to confront the high rates of poverty and inequality in a large part of Chilean society. This program was known as the Basic Government Program of the Popular Unity and, among its measures, the half liter of free milk for boys and girls, the nationalization of copper, the deepening of the Agrarian Reform, scholarships for students, work for all stood out. , among other. Despite the relevance of Salvador Allende’s political program, various sectors do not subscribe to these reforms and initiate a strong campaign of discrediting and opposition against the Popular Unity government.

Both Paul Schäfer and the hierarchies of Colonia Dignidad are part of this campaign because the agrarian reform represented a problem due to the fear that their extensive property would be expropriated. Added to this is the anti-communism present from its European experience and that intensifies with the socialist government of Salvador Allende. Thus, the leaders of Colonia Dignidad begin a close collaboration with different power groups, among which the military, politicians, businessmen, landowners, and opposition movements to the Popular Unity stand out. Such is the case of the far-right group Patria y Libertad, of landowners, politicians and the military, who sought to destabilize and overthrow President Allende.

Finally, this is crystallized with the civic-military coup that overthrew the Popular Unity government on September 11, 1973, installing a 17-year dictatorship of crimes and horror.

Colonia Dignidad and the Chilean military-civic dictatorship

Repressive circuit in Region VII

With the coup d’état of September 11, 1973, a civic-military dictatorship was installed in Chile, by force and violence, which remained in power for 17 years. The dictatorship used State terrorism as a form of social control and as an effective way to impose a new economic, political and social model in Chile called neoliberalism. Thus, after the coup, a repressive policy was installed that consisted of kidnapping, torture, execution, disappearance, relegation, exile and exoneration of political opponents or members and supporters of the Popular Unity, students, residents, leftist militants, religious , religious, trade unionists, artists, among other actors.

Although there were different repressive apparatuses dependent on each branch of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, it was the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) that depended directly on the dictator Augusto Pinochet. The DINA was officially created by Decree Law No. 521 on June 14, 1974. Under the command of Army Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Contreras, it was the body that was responsible for the implementation and execution of the repressive policy throughout the country. Its way of operating was selective and directed, mainly, against the militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), the Socialist Party (PS), the Communist Party (PC), the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU), among others.

As part of the repressive policy of the dictatorship, the DINA created secret repressive centers throughout the country . These precincts of kidnapping, torture and extermination to which the hostages were taken functioned in coordination, creating a repressive circuit and operations between precincts and cities. According to the Report of the Commission on Political Prison and Torture, during the dictatorship more than 1,132 precincts were used as places of detention in the thirteen regions of the country.

Organizational chart of perpetrators in Colonia Dignidad

Accomplices and co-authors of the repressive apparatus

The hierarchs, Paul Schäfer and some colonists were accomplices and co-authors of this repressive apparatus, working directly with the dictatorship and with the DINA. Thus, the property was not only used as a secret center for operations and for civil and military intelligence, but also as a secret center for the kidnapping, torture, disappearance and extermination of political prisoners. Likewise, in the seventh region, the Southern Intelligence Brigade of the DINA, led by General Fernando Gómez Segovia, had as its headquarters a house in Colonia Dignidad in Parral and the facilities within Colonia Dignidad were also used: a warehouse of potatoes, the hospital, laboratories, among others.

Secret center for kidnapping, torture, disappearance and extermination

In Colonia Dignidad, various spaces were used as places of repression and torture for the political hostages.

Freihaus – House of Paul Schäfer, Center for repressive operations and sexual abuse against children.
Central de Comunicación, Central area of internal and external communication of the Colony.
Potato warehouse, place used for the kidnapping, interrogation and torture of political prisoners.
Access, visitor and resident control point. Its characteristics made it possible for political prisoners to recognize the area.
Hospital, facilities used for experimentation with drugs, forced sterilization of women, confinement and application of torture to settlers and political prisoners.
Archive, place where the intelligence archive for repression, blackmail and extortion was compiled and systematized.
Pits, illegal excavations to make the bodies of murdered political prisoners disappear.
Disappeared Detainee Automobile Graves, illegal excavations carried out to hide vehicles of disappeared detainees.
Hildegaar, building used for the kidnapping and torture of political prisoners.
Río Perquilauquén, place where the ashes of murdered political prisoners were thrown to make them disappear.
Potato cellar, container of war weapons. Also chemical and bacteriological laboratory for the experimentation and manufacture of weapons.
Barn, temporary military dormitory.
Aerodrome, an area used for arms trafficking, the transfer of agents and leaders, positioning Colonia Dignidad as a nerve center in the repressive network of Chile and Latin America.
Cerco, extends for about 12 kilometers around the Colony and is made up of posts 2.80 meters high. Every 5 posts, motion sensors were installed that alerted any attempt to escape or unauthorized entry into the property.

Repressive and operational practices of State terrorism within Colonia Dignidad

Colonia Dignidad’s relationship with the dictatorship was developed in terms of complicity and direct collaboration between its main repressive apparatus, the DINA, and the leader of the enclave and his hierarchs, who made their knowledge, facilities and also their participation available to the dictatorship in the repression against political opponents.

This joint work was expressed in the use of Colonia Dignidad for the kidnapping, torture, interrogation, murder and disappearance of people. The testimonies of former political prisoners and some settlers confirm this. On the other hand, investigations and judicial rulings determined that illegal graves were made inside the compound to hide the bodies of murdered political prisoners, which were later exhumed and made to disappear from Colonia Dignidad.

Other dimensions refer to the military and intelligence training of civilians and military personnel, the arms trafficking through Gerhard Mertins, an international trafficker, and the creation of bacteriological and chemical weapons within the framework of the so-called Andrea Project. This secret plan of the dictatorship consisted of the production of sarin gas and other chemical substances, with the aim of using them in the murder of political opponents of the dictatorship. The DINA agents in charge of developing chemical weapons, Michael Townley and Eugenio Berrios, were in Colonia Dignidad on several occasions.

The settlers also installed communication networks in important DINA barracks, such as Villa Grimaldi, the central headquarters on Belgrano street, and the National Intelligence School in Cajón del Maipo. Likewise, Paul Schäfer commissioned Gerd Seewald, head of Colonia Dignidad, to prepare an intelligence file that served to monitor opponents of the dictatorship, political prisoners, military personnel, public officials, even the dictator Augusto Pinochet and his closest collaborators. . This file was compiled until 1995, and was later found in the framework of judicial investigations in 2005. The discovery of these files and other documents in Colonia Dignidad, constituted the first file on the repression of the dictatorship in Chile to date.

Circle of protection around Colonia Dignidad

Archive: National and international protection network drawn up by Schäfer and his hierarchs

National and international protection network developed by Schäfer and its leaders

Despite the submission of a large part of Chilean society to the dictatorship, Colonia Dignidad maintained its autonomy, secrecy and power. The configuration of a complex national and international protection network drawn up by Schäfer and his leaders contributed to this. At the base of this network was the so-called Círculo de Amigos, an organization that supported the Colony through a policy of alliances with civilians, politicians, military, judges, police, businessmen, journalists, international war criminals, among others.

This network was not only built from the complicity of its members, but also through extortion, blackmail and bribery of its allies and enemies. To do this, they resorted to recordings and files with private information that was later used to obtain political favors and influence within the judicial and police powers.

Transition and unveiling of crimes

The Chilean and German State supported for nearly 50 years an organization that carried out crimes against humanity in Colonia Dignidad. In turn, despite the fact that the victims repeatedly denounced the horror experienced within the German enclave, the judicial systems of both nations did not receive the complaints efficiently and in a timely manner to stop human rights violations.

A milestone in the complaint processes against Colonia Dignidad occurred in 1975 when former political prisoners gave their testimonies to the United Nations and Amnesty International. Then, in 1978 Amnesty International published these testimonies which are reproduced by the German magazine Stern, making known, abroad, the serious and systematic human rights violations committed inside the German premises.

With the end of the dictatorship in 1989, Patricio Aylwin assumed the presidency of the Republic in March 1990 and a period of transition to democracy began. On January 31, 1991, under the mandate of President Patricio Aylwin, the legal personality was removed from Colonia Dignidad, making the concession of September 21, 19961 in the mandate of President Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez obsolete. This legal action established that the assets and assets of the dissolved entity passed to the Methodist Corporation. Until that moment, Colonia Dignidad had received the tax and customs exemptions that the legislation provides for charities. When it was found that there was no technical accounting, there were no annual income tax returns and imports exempt from customs duties,

During those years, the State made two reports of truth to account for the crimes that occurred during the dictatorship.

In 1991 the Report of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

On November 30, 1996, in the early hours of the morning, 100 members of the V Department of Investigations raided the territories of Colonia Dignidad for the first time in its history.

Given the extreme situation, and the verification of the participation of this former German farmer in political activities during the Pinochet regime, and the disappearance of many people within its territorial limits, the government of Ricardo Lagos initiates an intense raid of all the lands de la Colonia, encountering unusual surprises.

In these search warrants they meet a fully organized opposition from the settlers, involving even the youngest children. The displacements are almost military within the territory of the sectarians, and with a large organization that demonstrated thorough prior preparation. The police detected nocturnal movements and movement of belongings from one place to another, and it was supposed that they were in order to hide its maximum leader, Paul Schäfer, who had remained unaccounted for several years and without being seen within the grounds from the colony. Schäfer, as in previous opportunities in his life, had to appear before the Chilean Justice for several complaints of abuse of minors who had managed to flee the Colony. These pending cases against him were and are only the tip of the iceberg of what he would have to explain about his activities in Chile. Other leaders of the Colony as early as the 1990s had been called to testify before the Justice and many of them remained detained or prosecuted at that time.

Among the discoveries found by the police, there are sophisticated communication and surveillance systems, many of them unknown in Chile, underground tunnels where people were detained after the Pinochet coup, tractors and buried cars that could be linked to certain criminal acts. , high-precision stored weaponry, etc.

As for the personal situation of the settlers, many of them did not know anything about the outside world, they did not speak Spanish a single word, they did not have specific families, but all shared situations of indefinite family ties, being very difficult to define origins of many of they. Many of these people did not know another type of life, having been born within this “previous German agricultural within Chile” and their innocence and naivety left the researchers surprised. Many of them were unaware of such banal details as current musical fashion, youth clothing, etc.

In 1997 the Chilean justice began investigations against Paul Schäfer only for sexual abuse against children, leaving out his collaboration with the dictatorship and the use of the property as a field of repression.

Finally, and thanks to the persistent work of the groups of relatives and former political prisoners for years, the justice began to investigate Schäfer and the hierarchs for their responsibility in the human rights violations that occurred inside Colonia Dignidad during the dictatorship . Following these investigations and accusations, in 1997 Paul Schäfer flees and remains a fugitive from justice. Many thought that he remained hidden in the underground galleries that were found in the extensive grounds of the Colony, others believed that he remained in Chile supported by a network of friends to end his ideas.

For the year 2004 the report of the National Commission on Political Prison and Torture appeared. Both documents acknowledge the use of Colonia Dignidad as a repressive and disappearance center for political prisoners.

Paul Schäfer is arrested on March 10, 2005, at 3:30 p.m. in Argentina, in an upper-middle-class condominium called Tortuguitas, a few kilometers from the Federal Capital, and is finally convicted of child sexual abuse , pending sentences for crimes against humanity linked to the dictatorship. He died of heart failure in the former Santiago Penitentiary, on April 24, 2010, had a conviction for 25 crimes of dishonest abuse of minors and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The investigation into other crimes was pending at the time of his death. At his burial he was accompanied to the cemetery only by his adopted daughter Rebeca Schäfer.

However, thanks to the persistent action of human rights organizations, legal advances were made related to the crime of illicit association, the disappearance of political prisoners and the kidnapping of 54 people.

Due to the investigations, it was possible to establish the places where he was tortured, repressive files were hidden, and illegal exhumations and burials of political prisoners were carried out. Likewise, it was possible to unveil the complex surveillance and communications system of Colonia Dignidad. Finally, it was also possible to establish the association between civilians and the military to commit crimes against humanity.

Villa Baviera

At present, the former Colonia Dignidad is known as Villa Baviera and it continues to be a complex problem that has not been resolved by the Chilean and German states. After five decades, the victims of Paul Schäfer and his collaborators still live with their perpetrators in the same place where they were subjected to humiliating practices. Starting in 2007, the situation changed dramatically. Breaking the isolation of the former Colony and opening its doors to the hundreds of Germans who lived in it under strict control, and also to Chileans who wish to visit it, has totally changed the situation. The industriousness and the food products that the residents of the so-called Villa Baviera make are of exceptional quality and have managed to place them in most of the large commercial chains. They are self-sufficient,

Generally when the oldest of the place are consulted about the events that occurred inside, they evade the answer or try to put a dark wall to that part of their lives. The youth have joined existing universities in the nearest cities and their relationship with Chileans is fluid and without problems. A whole program of social reintegration has had to be resorted to, especially with young people, so that they learn to communicate in Spanish, understand the country and its customs where they have lived in total darkness for years, interact with their people and even share their festivities. A government census was also carried out on the members of the place, since they did not have any type of identification from Chile,