Paul Schafer

Paul Schäfer Schneider ( Troisdorf , 4 of December of 1921 - Santiago , 24 of April of 2010 ) was the founder of the enclave of immigrants Germans in Chilecalled Colonia Dignidad , which was located in the place where now stands Villa Baviera , in The outskirts of Parral , located in the Maule Region .

Schäfer in his youth participated in the Hitler Youths and like nurse in the German battalions in World War II . After the defeat of his country, formed a society benefactora, which left after accusations of sexual abuse to minors . In 1961 he arrived in Chile and founded Colonia Dignidad, which he led despotically.

Investigations by Amnesty International and the Rettig Report confirmed that the enclave was used by the Chilean secret police DINA as a detention and torture center during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet . Several complaints about pedophilia, qualified homicide, abuses and torture were presented during the 1990s after the end of the dictatorship, but Schäfer escaped justice until he was captured in Argentina in 2005 . After being extradited, he was convicted of abusing 25 minors and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chilean court, dying at the expenitenciaria of Santiago.

Biography

Early years

He was born in Germany , joining the Hitler Youth when he was young. He served as a nurse in the Wehrmacht during World War II , where he reached the rank of corporal. He lived in Germany until 1961 . After the war he created an evangelical children’s home . In 1959 he created the Private Social Mission, supposedly a charitable organization. The same year he was accused of sexual abuse of two children, so he is banished from Germany with some of his supporters, allegedly aided by the ODESSA protection network .

Arrival to Chile

He arrives in Chile in 1961 , where the government of Jorge Alessandri gives him permission to create the Benefit and Educational Society Dignity , on the outskirts of Parral . Founded at the beginning as an anticommunist enclave , it becomes the community of Colonia Dignidad , where according to the Valech Commission studies , some dissident politicians of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet , were interned and tortured. In 1974 Pinochet, together with Manuel Contreras and his son, visit the enclave, because Contreras and Schäfer were friends.

Accusations

After several decades of accusations, several of the cases come to court. Jose Efrain Vedder Veuhoff , ^one Chilean former Colonia Dignidad settler kidnapped there since nine years in March 2004 sought refuge in Germany .

Fugitive

Schäfer disappears 20 of maypole of 1997 , accused of sexual abuse after 26 children denounce such violations. ² He was not charged for any crime until 2004 . Several operatives of both the Investigation Police of Chile and the Federal Police of Argentina began to track the whereabouts of Schäfer, thinking that he could be in Argentina , even determining that he remained for a few years in Chile , exactly in Valparaiso . It would not be until October to March of 2005 when in collaboration with a group of journalism program Contact of Channel 13 of Chile who infiltrated rural sector, located on a plot of the town of Las Acacias a few kilometers from Buenos Aires , Argentina , protected by bodyguards. After two days of negotiations between the Chilean and Argentine authorities to avoid an extradition process, Schäfer is returned to Chile diplomatically to be tried. Such charges fell on the disappearance of political activist Juan Maino . Schäfer was under investigation in Chile for the connection between the disappearance of Boris Weisfeiler and charges of human rights violations . It was also requested in Germany and France for the connection of sexual abuse of children before emigrating to Chile.

Causes and crimes

In addition to the summaries of human rights violations, ³ instructed by the ministers of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, Joaquín Billard, Jorge Zepeda and Sergio Muñoz, Paul Schaefer and settlers of Villa Baviera are investigated by other capital courts and the Seventh Region: ³

• Cause Roll 136.414-F of the 14th Criminal Court of Santiago, against Helmut Baar Köhler and others, for the crimes of fraud and simulated contracts. State: dismissed definitively, but with a pending appeal filed by the CDE.
• Cause Rol 53,015 of the Court of Parral, against Paul Schaefer and others, for the crime of dishonest abuses. State: reactivated after the apprehension of Schaefer in Argentina and with sentences of first instance by complicity against German leaders of Dignity.
• Causas Roles Nº 53.914, Nª 54.712 y Nª 54.713 del Juzgado de Letras de Parral (acumuladas) contra Gerhard Wolfgang Mücke y otros. Estado: con apelación en la Corte de Talca a la sentencia condenatoria.
• Cause Roll 55.070 of the Court of Parral, against Harmut Hopp and others, for violation of the Adoption Law. State: with acquittal.
• Cause Roll 55.438 of the Court of Parral, against Maximiliano Rudolf, for the crime of impersonation of person. State: definitively dismissed for the death of the accused, who was a resident of Concepción (Chiguayante).
• Cause Role 53.998 of the Court of Parral, against Peter Smith Spinti, for the crime of damages. State: with conviction.
• Case Cause 62.577 of the Court of Parral, against Paul Schaefer, for the crime of illicit association. State: in summary with pending steps.
• Cause Rol 34.422-3 of the Court of Appeals of Bulnes, against the representatives of the former Educational Benefactor Dignity, for the crime of customs fraud. Status: temporarily dismissed and filed.

Condemned

On May 24, 2006, Schäfer was definitively sentenced to 20 years in prison by a minister visiting the Court of Appeal in Talca , for 20 offenses of dishonest abuses and five for rape of children committed between 1993 and 1997. In addition Schäfer was ordered to pay compensation of 770 million pesos to 11 of the minors whose representatives filed civil suits.

Conviction for arsenal of weapons

El 28 de agosto de 2006 recibe otra sentencia del ministro de fuero Jorge Zepeda Arancibia, a siete años de presidio mayor en su grado mínimo, por infracción a la Ley sobre Control de Armas. La condena se debe al hallazgo, el 14 de junio de 2005, en el interior de Villa Baviera, de un arsenal de armamento de guerra y explosivos, oculto en tres contenedores.El arsenal incluye armas automáticas, livianas y semiautomáticas, lanza proyectiles, granadas, material explosivo, elementos químicos y proyectiles en general. El fallo establece que el arsenal “parece haber sido construido para ser utilizado en un conflicto bélico, como medio de combate”. También llama la atención los medios “de sorpresa” encontrados, como es el caso de las armas de fantasías, tales como lápices, bastones, y cámara fotográfica que disparan balas.

Judge Zepeda’s ruling does not include three things:

• The Andrea Project and the killings with Gas Sarin . ⁴
• The massacre of Cerro Gallo (Cerro Gallo is a hill next to the colony, where in 1975 - the year of Operation Colombo - a hundred political prisoners were executed). ⁴
• Monte Maravilla , a forced labor camp that the colony, kept southwest of Dignidad. ⁴

Networks of support

Great Media

Channel 13 carried out real communication operations in support of Colonia Dignidad. ⁵ José Miguel Villouta harshly criticized the euphemism used in the “Contacto” program to refer to the right-wing support for Colonia Dignidad , when the driver, Mercedes Ducci , ⁵ spoke of “authorities of the time” or “certain press.” The TV driver writes in his page that “Villa Baviera had the support of Jovino Novoa , Hernán Larraín , Jaime Guzmán , Augusto Pinochet Ugarte and El Mercurio . ⁵

It tries to annul the legal personality

In 1991 , the Government attempted to annul the legal personality of Dignidad, and 17 UDI and RN parliamentarians appealed to the Constitutional Court to allege the unconstitutionality of the decree of the Ministry of Justice, which declared the legal entity “Benefactor and Educational Dignity” dissolved. ⁵ Signatures include Senators Sergio Romero , Sergio Fernandez , Mario Ríos , Sergio Diez , Olga Feliú , Bruno Siebert , William Thayer and Santiago Sinclair , Jaime Guzmán and Sergio Onofre Jarpa . The request was rejected, but it showed how powerful Schäfer’s support network was, which allowed for impunity in Villa Bavaria. ⁵

Group of friends of Dignity

In 1994 , a “group of friends” was formed in favor of the hospital and the school of Villa Bavaria. Among them were the recently elected senator by the area, Hernán Larraín , deputies Carlos Bombal , Evelyn Matthei , Andrés Chadwick , Jaime Orpis and Juan Antonio Coloma , among others. ⁵

Declaration of support of 1996

There is a 1996 declaration in which 15 right-wing parliamentarians - among them Hernán Larraín , ⁶ Mario Ríos and Sergio Fernández - are calling for an Investigations operative that sought to arrest “an 80-year-old man who also suffers partial loss Of the vision “. ^{[ Citation needed ]}

Obstruction to justice

In 1998 , the same MPs voted against a commission of inquiry to clarify the human rights violations committed in that area during the military regime. ⁵

Mónica Madariaga

Mónica Madariaga, afirmó en una entrevista a La Tercera, que no se avergonzaba de sus vínculos a la Colonia.

“I know that Jaime Guzman (the assassinated former senator of the UDI) taught Pablo Longueira , Luis Cordero and Andrés Chadwick (all leaders of the Independent Democratic Union) in the interior of Colonia Dignidad.” “They were indoctrinated in that place, there they were trained politically, they taught them, Jaime Guzman instructed them and gave them talks, he did the Platonic style, he walked around the fields teaching classes, all of which made a great profit from Colonia Dignidad. Now they say nothing. ” UDI senator Hernán Larraín , “who was a close friend of the people of Colonia Dignidad” and said that this place “was used as a training ground” for UDI leaders.

Mónica Madariaga in an interview with the Third . ^{7 8 9}

Death

He died at dawn of 24 of April of 2010 at 7:32 due to heart failure in the hospital expenitenciaría of Santiago de Chile , Chile . ¹⁰

See also

• Klaus Schnellenkamp
• Project Andrea
• Cerro Gallo Massacre

References