Steinmeier visits Chile on South America trip
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to continue his South America trip in Chile on Tuesday.
Steinmeier plans first to open a German-Chilean economic conference and visit the German School in Santiago. Additionally, a visit to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights is on his agenda.
The museum is dedicated to the victims of the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990. During this time, there were around 3,000 political murders and more than 30,000 political prisoners in Chile.
A meeting with current President Gabriel Boric is not scheduled until Wednesday. The previous day, Steinmeier met Paraguayan President Santiago Peña in Asunción.
In Santiago, Steinmeier will also meet with those affected by, and experts on, the subject of Colonia Dignidad. The German lay preacher Paul Schäfer moved with his followers from Germany to Chile in the early 1960s and founded a settlement near the city of Parral. For decades, he made the cult members work there without pay until they were exhausted, tore families apart and abused German and Chilean children.
During the military dictatorship under Pinochet, regime opponents were said to have been tortured and murdered at the settlement site.
Today, the area has been renamed Villa Baviera and, among other things, a restaurant operates there. For years, there has been a struggle over the construction of a memorial for the victims of Colonia Dignidad in Chile.
