SANTIAGO, Chile: Chile´s new right-wing government will reverse plans to expropriate a German-themed settlement that served as a torture center when Augusto Pinochet was in power, a government minister said in remarks published on Sunday.
Colonia Dignidad, as it was called, featured a swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, making it look like a nice holiday getaway spot.
But in Chile, the area´s name is synonymous with horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents during Pinochet´s dictatorship.
Last year, then leftist president Gabriel Boric ordered that 116 hectares 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.
This will no longer happen for financial reasons, said Housing Minister Ivan Poduje, who is part of the government of Chile´s new far-right president Jose Antonio Kast.
“We are going to reverse the issue of the expropriation of Colonia Dignidad and we will issue a new decree that revokes the one that gave rise to the plan,” Poduje said, according to the newspaper La Tercera.
“This project has nothing to do with our agenda,” the minister said.
