Villa Baviera: A symbol of horror demanding justice and true reparation

 By Rodolfo Varela

On Tuesday, July 22, 2025, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile published Exempt Decree No. 60 from the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism, approving the Expropriation Program for properties belonging to the former Colonia Dignidad, now known as Villa Baviera, in the commune of Parral. 

Remembering the horrors of Colonia Dignidad in Chile

This act marks a milestone in the long and painful struggle for memory, justice, and reparation. A significant—though long overdue—step toward recognizing the immense harm caused by one of the most brutal centers of torture, slavery, disappearance, and abuse under the civic-military dictatorship.

Colonia Dignidad was not just a secluded community. It was a stronghold of horrors, where crimes against humanity were committed: systematic torture, forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, child sexual abuse, abduction of minors, and the illegal sale of babies to foreign families. All of this occurred with the complicity of political, judicial, military, and religious sectors—both under dictatorship and in democracy. Institutional silence and omission were part of the pact of impunity that protected the perpetrators for decades.

The decree explicitly acknowledges the existence of criminal operations such as “Operativo Cerro Gallo” and “Operation Removal of Televisions,” as well as the presence of clandestine graves, cremation sites, torture centers, and underground bunkers—many of which remain insufficiently investigated. Over 117 hectares are slated for expropriation, including the infamous house of Paul Schäfer, a clandestine hospital, and various structures used to repress and disappear people.

This administrative act is certainly a sign of progress. The expropriation will help preserve these spaces as sites of memory—an international obligation under conventions such as the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, and the Rome Statute. But the key question remains: is it enough?

A growing debt

More than 50 years have passed since the horrors began in that place, and only now has the State acted with legal and material force. How many victims died waiting for justice? How many families were torn apart forever? How many children still don’t know their true identity, after being sold like merchandise—with the active participation of doctors, judges, and clergy?

Many perpetrators have died without facing justice. Others remain free, some even holding public office. And most painful of all: comprehensive reparation is still a distant goal. Some victims survive on miserable pensions, with wounded bodies and minds, with their loved ones still missing. And society at large still struggles to look truthfully and courageously at its own past.

ECCHR: Colonia Dignidad remains a dark chapter of German legal history

This decree must be the beginning, not the end. Expropriation is necessary, but not sufficient. Chile urgently needs a national plan for the search of the disappeared, increased symbolic and economic reparations, psychological support, real justice for those still alive—and above all, guarantees of non-repetition.

Summit of leaders: What democracy do they celebrate?

While Chile’s government publishes this historic decree, leaders of center-left governments in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, and Uruguay announce the “Democracy Always” Summit—a gathering to reaffirm their commitment to democratic institutions, social justice, and human rights.

But we cannot be satisfied with speeches. These same governments face deep crises of credibility, massive social protests, police brutality without consequence, and alarming political inertia regarding both past and present victims.

So, a legitimate and urgent question arises: what kind of democracy are we talking about? An incomplete, elitist democracy disconnected from its people’s suffering? Or a brave democracy, willing to look in the mirror and correct its historical mistakes?

If we want to speak of “Democracy Always,” we must first fulfill our debt to those who lost everything—first at gunpoint, and later, through institutional silence.