“Green Paradise”, controversial refuge in Paraguay for Europeans reluctant to vaccines

They speak German, they are wary of vaccines and, in search of their “mental and spiritual” development, they took refuge in Paraguay, where they are offered to live in a closed community far from European “regulations”, a goal that not everyone achieves.

It is called Paraíso Verde and it is located in the vicinity of Caazapá, about four hours from Asunción. The land of 16 square kilometers in the middle of the pampas and with a wooded area is reached through a dirt road. At the entrance there are armed vigilantes.

Some homes are finished, others are still under construction and there are also apartments in the style of an aparthotel. The shade is scarce and the heat suffocating, 37 degrees Celsius in summer, with a humidity of 60%.

Paraíso verde is a “free colony” according to its website. It emerged in 2016 on the initiative of the Austrian couple Erwin and Sylvia Annau, “with the dream of a better life and a future outside the Matrix”.

They say they are fleeing “socialist tendencies around the world” and “the global spread of degenerative implementations such as 5G, chemtrails [conspiracy theory that ensures that there is a secret government program to release toxic chemicals into the environment from airplanes], fluoridated water, mandatory vaccines and health mandates.”

“They were our catalyst for seeking new possibilities,” they explain on their website.

- “Too many regulations” -

In this place with garden and vegetable garden, surrounded by German-speakers, Heinz Kloetzner and Gerhild Wichmann, aged 72 and 70, feel comfortable. Without knowing Spanish and not being vaccinated, this couple arrived in Paraíso verde in October 2020 to get away from “the excessive regulations, rules and taxes” of Europe.

Herbert tells AFP that they have not been vaccinated because “normal vaccines do not alter DNA and anti-covid does.” Gerhild supports him: “This new vaccination is not normal. I think it's a human experiment with proteins.” Former tax advisor, she also plays the piano and settled in Paraíso verde to “discover her talents”.

These are the few local inhabitants whom the AFP was able to talk to during a videotaped visit by the people in charge of the place and in which there was always the accompaniment of a driver-guide.

There is a certain distrust of the media in Paraíso verde, after some reports that described them as “conparanoid”. Erwin Annau, its founder, declined several requests for an interview from AFP. Young couples with children, crossed on the outskirts of school — their alternative education system covers kindergarten to high school — didn't want to talk either.

- “No place for us” -

Another authorized interlocutor to testify to AFP is the German Uwe Craemer, in charge of the “health center” and who presents himself as a “naturalist doctor”, dedicated to homeopathy and ozone therapy.

“I left Europe because they don't want alternatives, only medical school. There is no place for us,” he says. Craemer further argues that the coronavirus “is not new” but has been used to “lock us up, punish us and impose masks on us.”

Juan Buker, president of the Reljuv company that manages the place, emphasizes that “many of those who come here do not want to be vaccinated against covid, but they are not anti-vaccines. The main philosophy of Paraiso verde is that we are on the way to a new era, an era of great freedom without debauchery.”

- Complaints -

Dozens of construction workers are lining up to work in the paraíso verde plots, which when its works are completed will have the capacity to accommodate 20,000 people, according to its website. AFP consulted several of them, but they were afraid to testify.

The Paraguayan prosecutor's office has received complaints of fraud, breach of confidence and dry out of the surrounding wetlands. “One of the (foreigners) who came sued them for fraud, for about $200,000,” the mayor of Caazapá, Amado Díaz Verón, told AFP.

Today, some 250 people live there, according to Buker. But some settlers, such as the retired couple Waltraud Goetzler and Ulli Fleishhacker, have left, even though they had already acquired their land.

“We feel too old to wait for the infrastructure to be ready. We'll be back in four or five years, when the project has more people, more roads, more internet, more electricity, more water,” says Goetzler, installed in a new house on the outskirts of Paraiso Verde.

Paul Saladin also left, who had set out to develop permaculture, but found that the development of canals in the area “causes a huge environmental problem on Susu Island”, a protected wilderness area.

“Many families have left because many things are very different from how they communicate it before. Nobody has a deed, nobody really owns their land, and yet they pay too much, they charge prices four or five times higher than normal,” said Saladin, who settled in Colonia Independencia, another German settlement close to Paraiso Verde.

On its website, Paraíso verde points out that many of those who have left this colony “wanted to continue living in the old system” and that, more selective now, reject 40% of those interested.

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