December 4, 1921 - Paul Schäfer
What made Schäfer's case historically distinctive was the confluence of private tyranny and state power: a closed religious colony in rural Chile served simultaneously as a site of systematic child sexual abuse and as an operational resource for Pinochet's security apparatus. The isolation of Colonia Dignidad — geographic, linguistic, and psychological — enabled both functions to persist for decades largely beyond outside scrutiny. His eventual arrest came only after the dictatorship that had sheltered him fell and former victims came forward, by which point he had evaded justice for years as a fugitive.
From Wikipedia
Paul Schäfer Schneider (4 December 1921 – 24 April 2010) was a German-Chilean Christian minister, convicted sex offender, and the founder and leader of a sect and agricultural commune of 300 German immigrants called Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony) (later renamed Villa Baviera) located in Parral in southern Chile, about 340 km (210 miles) south of Santiago from 1961 to 2005. Schäfer led his followers in the teachings of William Branham.
Aside from human rights abuses against members of Colonia Dignidad, including rape and sexual and physical abuse (including torture) of young children, Schäfer maintained a relationship with Pinochet's military dictatorship (1973–1990) and was involved in weapons smuggling and the torture and extrajudicial killings of political dissidents. After the end of Pinochet's government, increased public awareness of the activities of Colonia Dignidad following testimony by former victims led to the issuing of a warrant for Schäfer's arrest. Living underground for eight years, he spent the last five years of his life in prison in Chile.
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