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 SCHAEFER’S PROTECTION NETWORK STILL
OPERATIVE
Warns Former Interior Ministry Undersecretary
Belisario Velasco
(March 21, 2005, Ed. Note: Why was Colonia
Dignidad allowed to exist so long in Chile, acting as a kind of
“state within a state” and far beyond the reach of the law?
Similar questions have been asked repeatedly in the Chilean
press since March 10, when Paul Schaefer, the colony’s former
leader, was finally arrested in Argentina after eight years on the
run (ST, March 11). After being deported to Chile three days later
and questioned by Judge Joaquín Billard, Schaefer was formally
charged with the 1974 disappearance of leftist activist Alvaro
Vallejos Villagrán last Thursday.
Part of the answer to
Colonia Dignidad’s impunity is found in the essay below, written by
former Undersecretary of the Interior Belisario Velasco. Velasco was
the first Chilean official in the democratically elected government
of Patricio Aylwin to try to bring the rule of law to the colony and
prosecute its leaders. His account of his own efforts makes for a
fascinating read.)
As history tells us, and as is confirmed
in the case against Paul Schaefer and Colonia Dignidad, justice can
be delayed but ultimately wins out. In this case the reason for the
delay had to do with an illicit protection network: a network of
people involved with Schaefer who did not want an investigation to
ever occur, much less get to the courts.
Now that Schaefer’s
clandestine residence in Argentina is public news, it is my opinion
that the government’s efforts (to find him) were up to the task and
carried out in an efficient way. For its part, the Argentine
government acted in the way that its friendly neighbor hoped it
would, in full compliance with the rule of law.
In April
1990, just one month after he had taken office, President Patricio
Aylwin asked me to take personal responsibility for, and to give my
greatest effort to, an issue that worried him quite deeply: the
accusations that had been made against the so-called charitable
foundation, Sociedad Benefactora Colonia Dignidad. Aylwin had
denounced Colonia Dignidad when he was a senator back in 1969. By
1990 the enclave had turned into something that offended the dignity
of the country: under the guise of a charitable foundation, acts
were carried out there that were impossible to accept.
No
sooner had I begun working on this assignment than problems began to
arise. An enormous network of influence began to come into play in
an effort to keep our efforts from advancing. There were anonymous
threats and a very strong legal offensive against us. Dozens of
attorneys began lobbying on behalf of the leadership at Colonia
Dignidad. And most of them were from the (political) right. No one
remembers it today, but back then all the rightist senators from the
National Renovation and the Independent Democratic Union parties –
with the exception of Sen. Sebastián Piñera – wrote a public letter
in support of Schaefer and Colonia Dignidad.
In 1990 we
concluded that the misnamed Sociedad Benefactora Colonia Dignidad
had become a state within the state of Chile, all with the blessing
of the Pinochet dictatorship. The number of complaints against the
German colony was endless: kidnappings, child rape, torture, illegal
arrests, human rights violations, unfair pressure against neighbors
in an effort to buy their property (the Colony began with four
hectares of land and ultimately had 17,000). There was also a
constant effort to evade taxes, abuse customs privileges, fail to
pay wages to workers and government mandated compensation for
workers; not to mention irregularities in the functioning of its
hospital and its school – where they didn’t even bother to teach the
language used in Chile. And, finally, a controlled way of ordering
the lives of people who lived there that was foreign to our own
culture and any normal, rational way to live. Children were
separated from their families, facilitating Schaefer’s child
abuse.
Given this situation, the government decided to
dissolve the society’s tax-free status and its existence as a
charitable organization, and the papers were duly drawn up and
signed by Justice Minister Soledad Alvear. This would allow
subsequent legal prosecution to go forward.
When I began to
investigate the situation in 1990, I found a letter sent by Foreign
Minister Hernán Felipe Errázuirz to the interior minister of that
time. It said that the German government had leveled charges against
Colonia Dignidad, accusing it of systematic human rights violations.
Of course, everyone knew this at the time, just as they knew that
the colony had a special relationship with DINA (the Pinochet-era
secret police). Errázurriz took the position that just as Chile
could not accept pressure from a foreign state, neither could it
allow people to commit crimes in the way it was being done (in the
German colony).
Still, the only thing done by the interior
ministry was to send a note to Justice Minister Hugo Rosende. And
all that the Justice Ministry did was to make a formal complaint to
the Appeals Court of Talca.
I think we were dealing with a
criminal organization. And I believe this network is still in place.
Today, the same people that so strongly defended the colony with
open arms could see themselves greatly prejudiced if all the crimes
committed there are exposed. It is possible that they will still try
to keep justice from shedding light on what occurred
there.
This network of protection not only sheltered a very
large business – because the colony made millions and millions of
dollars – but it also protected a network of pedophiles. There is no
doubt that there are many, many people interested in keeping
Schaefer’s secrets unrevealed.
In our society there were
many people and interest groups – including the Catholic Church and
priest Raúl Hasbún – who publicly intervened in favor of the colony,
vilifying the action taken by the Ministry of the Interior and
asking why we were intervening in the colony for crimes that were
committed by many other people. I hope that these people and
interest groups – in light of all the information that has been
revealed in the media and by the justice system – rectify their
positions.
Today the question has to be: why and for what
purpose did these interest groups protect the colony and its leaders
from legal action against them?
SOURCE: THE
CLINIC
Translated by Steve Anderson (features@santiagotimes.cl)
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