Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past

Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past
Erich Schreiber, born and works in Colonia Dignidad, poses for a picture on his bike near Parral, Maule Province, Chile, April 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 19 May 2025
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Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past

Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past
  • Villa Baviera is the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the rule of Augusto Pinochet
  • The Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship

VILLA BAVIERA: With its pristine swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, Villa Baviera, a German-themed settlement of 122 souls in southern Chile, looks like the perfect holiday getaway.
But Colonia Dignidad, as it was previously known, is a byword for horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Twenty years after the cult leader, former Wehrmacht soldier Paul Schaefer, was jailed for the sexual abuse and torture of children at the colony, the Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship.
In June last year, President Gabriel Boric ordered that 116 hectares (287 acres) of the 4,800-hectare site, an area including the residents’ homes, a hotel, a restaurant, and several food processing factories, be expropriated to make way for a center of remembrance.
But some of the inhabitants, who were separated from their families as children, subjected to forced labor, and in some cases, sexually abused, say they are being victimized all over again.
Colonia Dignidad
Schaefer founded Colonia Dignidad in 1961 as an idyllic German family village — but instead abused, drugged and indoctrinated the few hundred residents and kept them as virtual slaves.
The boundaries between abuser and abused were blurred, with the children of Schaefer’s sidekicks counting themselves among his victims.
Anna Schnellenkamp, the 48-year-old manager of the colony’s hotel and restaurant, said she “worked completely free of charge until 2005,” the year of Schaefer’s arrest. “So much work I broke my back.”
Several years ago Schnellenkamp, whose late father Kurt Schnellenkamp was jailed for five years for being an accomplice to Schaefer’s abuse, finally found happiness.
She got married, had a daughter and started to create new, happier memories in the colony, where everyone still communicates in German despite being conversant in Spanish.
But she still views the settlement as part of her birthright.
“The settlers know every detail, every building, every tree, including where they once suffered and were forced to work,” she explained.
Chile’s dictatorship
Around 3,200 people were killed and more than 38,000 people tortured during Chile’s brutal dictatorship.
An estimated 26 people disappeared in Colonia Dignidad, where a potato shed, now a national monument, was used to torture dozens of kidnapped regime opponents.
But on the inside too, abuse was rife.
Schaefer was captured in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing dozens of minors over nearly half a century. He died in prison five years later while in preventive custody.
His arrest, and those of 20 other accomplices, marked a turning point for the colony, which had been rebranded Villa Baviera a decade previously.
Suddenly, residents were free to marry, live with their children, send them to school and earn a paycheck.
Some of the settlers returned to Germany.
Others remained behind and built a thriving agribusiness and resort, where tourists can sample traditional German fare, such as sauerkraut.
Some residents feel that Chile, which for decades turned a blind eye to the fate of the enclave’s children, now wants to make them pay for the sins of their fathers.
“One feels a kind of revenge against us,” said Markus Blanck, one of the colony’s business directors, whose father was charged as an accomplice of Schaefer’s abuse but died before being sentenced.
The government argues that the expropriations are in the public interest.
“There is a national interest here in preserving our country’s historical heritage,” Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo told AFP, assuring that those expropriated would be properly compensated.
Memorial site
While several sites of torture under the Chilean dictatorship have been turned into memorial sites, Gajardo said the memorial at Villa Baviera would be the biggest yet, similar to those created at former Nazi concentration camps in Europe.
It is not yet clear whether it will take the form solely of a museum or whether visitors will also be able to roam the site, including Schaefer’s house and the infamous potato shed.
The clock is ticking down for Boric to make the memorial a reality before his term runs out in March 2026.
His government wants to proceed quickly, for fear that the project be buried by a future right-wing government loathe to dwell on the abuses of the Pinochet era.


Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’

Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’
Updated 19 sec ago
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Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’

Bangladesh government calls for unity to prevent ‘return of authoritarianism’
  • The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since ex-PM Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in 2024
  • Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned from exile at the behest of protesters, says he has a duty to implement reforms

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government, which took over after a mass uprising last year, warned on Saturday that unity was needed to “prevent the return of authoritarianism.”

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted by student-led protests in August 2024, ending her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

After a week of escalation during which rival parties protested on the streets of the capital Dhaka, the government led by Muhammad Yunus said political power struggles risked jeopardizing gains that have been made and pleaded for people to give it their full support.

“Broader unity is essential to maintain national stability, organize free and fair elections, justice, and reform, and permanently prevent the return of authoritarianism in the country,” it said in a statement.

Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who returned from exile at the behest of protesters last year, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections that are due by June 2026 at the latest.

However, the government warned that it had faced “unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements,” which it said had been “continuously obstructing” its work.

Sources in his office and a key political ally said on Thursday that microfinance pioneer Yunus had threatened to quit.

“If the government’s autonomy, reform efforts, justice process, fair election plan, and normal operations are obstructed to the point of making its duties unmanageable, it will, with the people, take the necessary steps,” Saturday’s statement said, without giving further details.

Wahiduddin Mahmud, who heads the finance and planning ministry, insisted that Yunus will not step down early.

“We are going to carry out the responsibilities assigned to us,” Mahmud told reporters on Saturday. “We can’t simply abandon our duties.”

Yunus held talks on Saturday evening with key political parties, including those who have protested against the government this month.

His press secretary Shafiqul Alam insisted that the parties all had “full trust” in Yunus, with an all-party meeting scheduled for Sunday.

Yunus met leaders of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the election front-runners, who are pushing hard for polls to be held by December.

“Any excuse to delay the election may open the door for the return of dictatorship,” senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said after the meeting.

“The interim government and its allies will be held responsible for such a consequence.”

Yunus has said polls could be held as early as December but that holding them later — with the deadline of June — would give the government more time for reform.

But Hossain said that reforms, justice and elections were not “mutually exclusive goals.”

According to Bangladeshi media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman also said this week that elections should be held by December, aligning with BNP demands.

Bangladesh has a long history of military coups, and the army retains a powerful role.

The upcoming elections will be the first since Hasina fled to India, where she remains in self-imposed exile in defiance of an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to last year’s police crackdown on protesters, during which at least 1,400 people were killed.

Shafiqur Rahman, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest religious party, said after his meeting with Yunus that he had asked for an election timetable — saying he was open to a later date if it allowed for reforms.

He also said he had sought “progress in the ongoing trials” of those from Hasina’s ousted regime.

Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP) made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that ended Hasina’s rule, has said he wants later elections to allow time for “fundamental reforms.”

He fears rival parties want swift elections to “assume power.”

Speaking after meeting with Yunus, he said the NCP had “demanded a specific roadmap for reforms, trials, and the election of a constituent assembly.”

Islam, an ally of Yunus who previously served in his cabinet, speaking earlier on Saturday, warned that he had seen “indications” that a “military-backed government could re-emerge — one that is anti-democratic and anti-people.”


Trump defends block on foreign students at Harvard

Trump defends block on foreign students at Harvard
Updated 28 min 43 sec ago
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Trump defends block on foreign students at Harvard

Trump defends block on foreign students at Harvard

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump defended on Sunday his administration’s move to block foreign students at Harvard after a judge suspended the action, branded by the top university as unlawful.
“Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31 percent of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign nationals, throwing the future of thousands of students and the lucrative income stream they provide into doubt.
She had threatened last month to block international students at the school unless it turned over records on visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities.”
But a judge quickly suspended the move after the university sued to “stop the government’s arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, and unconstitutional action.”
The White House is cracking down on US universities on several fronts, justified as a reaction to what the administration says is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.
It has also moved to revoke visas and deport foreign students involved in protests against the war in Gaza, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas.
At Harvard, the government has threatened to put $9 billion of funding under review, then went on to freeze a first tranche of $2.2 billion of grants and $60 million of official contracts. It has also targeted a Harvard Medical School researcher for deportation.
The loss of foreign nationals — more than a quarter of its student body — could prove costly to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition.
Harvard is the wealthiest US university with an endowment valued at $53.2 billion in 2024.


Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds more prisoners as another attack on Kyiv leaves 3 dead

Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds more prisoners as another attack on Kyiv leaves 3 dead
Updated 57 min 23 sec ago
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Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds more prisoners as another attack on Kyiv leaves 3 dead

Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds more prisoners as another attack on Kyiv leaves 3 dead
  • Hundreds more Ukrainian and Russian detainees were freed in a prisoner swap exchange
  • Russian president Vladimir Putin accused of delaying peace deal in a bid to capture more Ukrainian land

KYIV: Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds more prisoners Saturday as part of a major swap that amounted to a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire.
The exchange came hours after Kyiv came under a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack and authorities said another combined aerial attack that started Saturday night and stretched into Sunday morning had left three people dead in the “Kyiv region,” according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said “there are already 10 injured” is Kyiv as of 3 a.m. Sunday, adding that a student dormitory in Holosiivskyi district was hit a drone and the exterior of one of its walls was on fire.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s defense ministry said each side brought home 307 more soldiers on Saturday, a day after each released a total of 390 combatants and civilians. Further releases expected over the weekend are set to make the swap the largest in more than three years of war.
“We expect more to come tomorrow,” Zelensky said on his official Telegram channel. Russia’s defense ministry also said it expected the exchange to be continued, though it did not give details.
Hours earlier, explosions and anti-aircraft fire were heard throughout Kyiv as many sought shelter in subway stations as Russian drones and missiles targeted the Ukrainian capital overnight.
In talks held in Istanbul earlier this month — the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion — Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each.
‘A difficult night’
Officials said Russia attacked Ukraine with 14 ballistic missiles and 250 Shahed drones overnight while Ukrainian forces shot down six missiles and neutralized 245 drones — 128 drones were shot down and 117 were thwarted using electronic warfare.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said it was one of the biggest combined missile and drone attacks on the capital.
“A difficult night for all of us,” the administration said in a statement.
Posting on X, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “clear evidence that increased sanctions pressure on Moscow is necessary to accelerate the peace process.”
Posting on X, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke of “another night of terror for Ukrainian civilians.”
“These are not the actions of a country seeking peace,” Lammy said of the Russian strike.
Katarina Mathernová, the European Union’s ambassador to Kyiv, described the attack as “horrific.”
“If anyone still doubts Russia wants war to continue — read the news,” Katarina Mathernová wrote on the social network.
Air raid alert in Kyiv
The debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least six Kyiv city districts. According to the acting head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, six people required medical care after the attack and two fires were sparked in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district.
The Obolon district, where a residential building was heavily damaged in the attack, was the hardest hit with at least five wounded in the area, the administration said.
Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.” Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.
“The balcony is totally wiped out, as well as the windows and the doors,” he said as he stood in the dark, smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.
The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than seven hours, warning of incoming missiles and drones.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, warned residents ahead of the attack that more than 20 Russian strike drones were heading toward the city. As the attack continued, he said drone debris fell on a shopping mall and a residential building in Obolon. Emergency services were headed to the site, Klitschko said.
Separately, 13 civilians were killed on Friday and overnight into Saturday in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s south, east and north, regional authorities said.
Three people died after a Russian ballistic missile targeted port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea, local Gov. Oleh Kiper reported. Russia later said the strike Friday targeted a cargo ship carrying military equipment.
Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday claimed its forces overnight struck various military targets across Ukraine, including missile and drone-producing plants, a reconnaissance center and a launching site for anti-aircraft missiles.
A complex deal
The prisoner swap on Friday was the first phase of a complicated deal involving the exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side.
It took place at the border with Belarus, in northern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The released Russians were taken to Belarus for medical treatment, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
POWs arrived at the medical facility in the Chernihiv region for a second day on Saturday. But for many their arrival was bittersweet.
Those who were not reunited with their loved ones took solace in the released POWs providing some information about when their relatives were last seen.
Anna Marchenko, the daughter of a missing Ukrainian serviceman, was elated when a released POW said they had seen her father.
“This is such a big news. It’s like a fresh breath of air,” she said. “I didn’t see him, but at least it’s some news. At least it’s news that gives us the opportunity to continue to breathe and live in peace.”
However, the exchange — the latest of dozens of swaps since the war began and the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians so far — did not herald a halt in the fighting.
Battles continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.
After the May 16 Istanbul meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the prisoner swap a “confidence-building measure” and said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks as diplomatic maneuvering continued.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement, once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.
Far apart on key conditions
European leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his larger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
The Istanbul meeting revealed that both sides remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that overnight and early on Saturday its forces shot down over 100 Ukrainian drones over six provinces in western and southern Russia.
The drone strikes injured three people in the Tula region south of Moscow, local Gov. Dmitriy Milyaev said, and sparked a fire at an industrial site there.
Andriy Kovalenko, of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Saturday the drones hit a plant in Tula that makes chemicals used in explosives and rocket fuel.


ASEAN must deepen integration and stay united to tackle US tariffs, Malaysia says

ASEAN must deepen integration and stay united to tackle US tariffs, Malaysia says
Updated 25 May 2025
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ASEAN must deepen integration and stay united to tackle US tariffs, Malaysia says

ASEAN must deepen integration and stay united to tackle US tariffs, Malaysia says
  • ASEAN countries, many of which rely on exports to the US, are reeling from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration
  • ASEAN unsuccessfully sought an initial meeting with the US as a bloc

KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asian nations must accelerate regional economic integration, diversify their markets and stay united to tackle the fallout from global trade disruptions resulting from sweeping US tariff hikes, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Sunday.
Mohamad, opening a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also reiterated the bloc’s call to warring parties in Myanmar to cease hostilities in a deadly civil war that has killed thousands and displaced millions of people since a 2021 government takeover by the military.
“ASEAN nations are among those most heavily affected by the US-imposed tariffs. The US–China trade war is dramatically disrupting production and trade patterns worldwide. A global economic slowdown is likely to happen,” Mohamad said. “We must seize this moment to deepen regional economic integration, so that we can better shield our region from external shocks.”
ASEAN countries, many of which rely on exports to the US, are reeling from tariffs imposed by the Trump administration ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent. Six of the association’s 10 member nations were among the worst-hit with tarrifs ranging from 32 percent to 49 percent.
ASEAN unsuccessfully sought an initial meeting with the US as a bloc. When US President Donald Trump last month announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs, countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam swiftly began trade negotiations with Washington.
The meeting of foreign ministers preceded a planned ASEAN leaders’ summit Monday in Malaysia, the bloc’s current chair. A summit is expected to follow on Tuesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
ASEAN’s unity is crucial as the region grapples with impacts of climate change and disruption from the malevolent use of artificial intelligence and other unregulated techologies, Mohamad said, adding that ASEAN’s centrality will be tested by external pressure, including a superpower rivalry.
“External pressures are rising, and the scope of challenges has never had higher stakes,” he said. ““It is therefore crucial that we reinforce the ties that bind us, so as to not unravel under external pressures. For ASEAN, unity is now more important than ever.”
ASEAN members have refused to take sides, engaging the US and China, which are both key regional trading and investment partners.
ASEAN remained committed to help war-torn Myanmar, which is recovering from a March earthquake that killed more than 3,700 people, Mohamad said.
Myanmar’s military leaders were barred from attending ASEAN meetings after refusing to comply with ASEAN’s peace plan, which includes negotiations and delivery of humanitarian aid.
“We call on the stakeholders in Myanmar to cease hostilities, and to extend and expand the ceasefire, to facilitate the long and difficult path toward recovery,” Mohamad said.
Myanmar’s crisis has challenged the credibility of ASEAN, which has been hampered by its long-held policy of non-interference in each other’s affairs.
After informal consultations with bloc members, Mohamad said Saturday that ASEAN has to step up efforts as Myanmar’s problems had spilled over borders with a growing number of refugees fleeing to neighboring nations and rising transborder crime.
Malaysia’s efforts now focus on de-escalation of violence and greater access to humanitarian aid, but he said plans for political dialogue between the conflicting parties would be challenging due to a “trust deficit.”


North Korea detains 3 shipyard officials over the failed launch of a naval destroyer

North Korea detains 3 shipyard officials over the failed launch of a naval destroyer
Updated 25 May 2025
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North Korea detains 3 shipyard officials over the failed launch of a naval destroyer

North Korea detains 3 shipyard officials over the failed launch of a naval destroyer
  • Satellite imagery on the site showed the vessel lying on its side and draped in blue covers, with parts of the ship submerged
  • The failed launch was subsequently an embarrassment to Kim Jong Un, who is eager to build greater naval forces to deal with what he calls US-led military threats

SEOUL: North Korea authorities have detained three shipyard officials over the recent failed launch of a naval destroyer, an incident that leader Kim Jong Un said was caused by criminal negligence, state media said Sunday.
The 5,000-tonne-class destroyer was damaged Wednesday when a transport cradle on the ship’s stern detached early during a launch ceremony attended by Kim at the northeastern port of Chongjin. Satellite imagery on the site showed the vessel lying on its side and draped in blue covers, with parts of the ship submerged.
The vessel is North Korea’s second known destroyer. The failed launch was subsequently an embarrassment to Kim, who is eager to build greater naval forces to deal with what he calls US-led military threats.
North Korea launched its first destroyer, also a 5,000-ton-class ship, with massive fanfare last month. The ship is North Korea’s largest and most advanced warship and state media reported it is designed to carry various weapons including nuclear missiles.
Law enforcement authorities detained the chief engineer, head of the hull construction workshop and deputy manager for administrative affairs at Chongjin Shipyard, who they said were responsible for Wednesday’s failed launch, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
Hong Kil Ho, the shipyard manager, also was summoned for questioning, KCNA previously reported.
Kim blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for what he called a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism.”
In an instruction to investigators Thursday, North Korea’s powerful Central Miliary Commission echoed Kim’s position, saying those responsible “can never evade their responsibility for the crime.”
North Korea denied the warship suffered major damage, saying the hull on the starboard side was scratched and some seawater flowed into the stern section.
North Korea said Friday it needed about 10 days to make repairs, but many outside observers said the country likely understated the damage.