“Colonia Dignidad”: Sect victims send fire letters to Maas

Victims of the “Colonia Dignidad” have been waiting for compensation for years. Now they have sent a fire letter to Foreign Minister Maas: Germany should campaign for the disbursement of the funds.

Eduardo Salvo speaks softly about the abuse that happened to him in the 1990s. Back then, when he was 13, he was temporarily living in the German sect “Colonia Dignidad” in southern Chile. “The sexual assaults of my childhood still appear in my dreams to this day,” says Eduardo. His parents lived in the area around the sect and believed their son was in good hands with the German settlers. Finally, “Colonia Dignidad” presented itself to the outside world as a model property with a hospital and school.

Inside, however, sexual abuse took place by the cult leader Paul Schäfer. The pedophile leader of the devout Christian community had fled to Chile with his supporters in 1961 to avoid German abuse investigations. There was a settlement that was cordoned off like a prison with barbed wire. Schäfer abused numerous children of the community there.

Together with his leadership clique, he also supported Chile’s dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and had his political opponents tortured and murdered on the sect’s grounds. After the end of the dictatorship, the “Colonia Dignidad” continued to exist – also because German diplomats did nothing. The German embassy had known about the abuse since the 1960s, but never filed a complaint and even sent refugees back to the sect several times.

So it was possible that sect leader Schäfer was able to lure Chilean children like Eduardo onto the premises and abuse them in the 1990s. His revolver was always lying next to the bed to instill fear in the boys and to break their resistance. Only when victims managed to tell their parents about the abuse did the police intervene. Schäfer was finally caught in 2005.

Longstanding legal dispute

When he speaks about the injustice that is happening to him to this day, Eduardo’s voice cracks: After the abuse, he and other victims sued the sect’s companies for compensation. In 2013, the Chilean Supreme Court ruled them. But instead of the due payouts, a legal dispute began that continues to this day. The sect’s corporations are refusing to carry out the Supreme Court’s verdict by any number of means. Today it is the same nested company structure that the sect leader Schäfer and his management team had created at the time of the dictatorship.

The “Villa Baviera” holding company manages agricultural and forestry operations on the former sect site. The directors own the lands that were built with the help of forced labor. Meanwhile, children of the former sect leadership run these companies.

From the point of view of victim lawyer Hernán Fernández, they resisted the reappraisal: “These directors prevent justice from happening and compensation from being paid.” Eduardo Salvo believes that “the old sect leadership handed over power to their children. That is why the economic sect structure continues to this day. With full stop and comma.”

Germany should put pressure on

At the end of May, the abuse victims wrote a fire letter to Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. This is the one ARD in front. In it, they demand that Germany should “work with the companies of the ‘Villa Baviera’ and the Chilean government to ensure that the outstanding payments are settled immediately.” So far they are waiting for an answer from Berlin.

“This letter to Germany’s foreign minister is my last hope,” explains Eduardo. In his view, Germany must help because it is partly to blame. “For 40 years the German diplomats in Chile knew about the abuse – and did nothing. On the contrary: They had the sect send you liver sausage and bread rolls,” complains the 40-year-old.

It is interesting that the federal government financially supported the cult companies between 2008 and 2012 and even afterwards. German tax money flowed to the “Villa Baviera” through the Federal Foreign Office and GIZ, although no compensation has been paid to date. The federal government has apparently never specifically pushed ahead with the dissolution of the opaque company structure and the distribution of the sect’s assets among the victims.

Politics in charge?

The victim lawyers are now calling for radical measures. “Power must be withdrawn from the company bosses. Concrete intervention is required so that the sect’s assets are under state control,” says Fernández. The Berlin scientist Jan Stehle also sees politics in Germany and Chile as responsible for ensuring transparency: “It is incomprehensible that the assets of a criminal organization can be managed by a few today without being able to look into it. which assets are involved. “

Eduardo Salvo hopes for the support and a clear stance on the part of the federal government to resolutely come to terms with the dark past of the “Colonia Dignidad” – 24 years after the abuse.

There was no answer to inquiries to representatives of the “Villa Baviera”. The Foreign Office did not want to comment on the matter either.