“I just want my daughter back”: The 20-year-old from Dresden lives in an abandonment camp

Dresden – Come to rest in contemplative days, enjoy Christmas with family: Mother Eve (56, all names have been changed) from Dresden he wants nothing more than to hug his daughter Lea (20) on Christmas Eve. The university professor is instead tormented by fears, sadness and anger: she is convinced that she has “lost” her only son in the controversial abandonment camp “El Paraíso Verde” (in German: the green paradise) in Paraguay and a family with a strange World vision.

There was nothing to suggest it was going to be a one way trip. In the Corona summer of 2020, Lea flew to her boyfriend John a little older to Paraguay with only hand luggage. But two weeks later, her seat on the return plane remained empty. “Mom, I’m staying here,” Lea said on the phone.

A shock for Eve. “I couldn’t believe that she suddenly wanted to leave family, friends, education and home,” says her mother. She stands in Lea’s nursery, which still looks the same as it did on the day she left over two years ago. “She wants to come back. But she won’t be allowed to,” Eva is convinced.

But one after another. In 2019 the world was still fine. Her mother went to Paraguay with her daughter for a few days and visited the camp. She wanted to inquire about a possible retirement home.

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Lea was still a minor and fell in love with John, son of Austrian camp founders Sylvia and Erwin Annau (68). He is a former Scientologist and a self-confessed lateral thinker.

After their departure, the young lovers also met in Vienna. Lea celebrated her 18th birthday in early 2020, and a few months later her one-way flight took off.

The daughter has since stopped answering calls and only responds sporadically to WhatsApp messages, the mother said. “I know my son. Something is wrong. You can’t explain everything about being in love,” says Eva.

“I’m sure her host family will put psychological pressure on her to pack up and not go back to Germany.” Her mother turned to her authorities, but they rejected her in reference to Lea’s coming of age.

After months of illness, Eva went to camp with Lea’s father (who lives separately). “We wanted to go back with her and had already booked tickets to be safe,” says Eva. They gained access and mother and daughter saw each other again after almost a year. “We worked really hard. It was wonderful,” says the mother. “However, I couldn’t talk to her alone because John was always with me.”

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Finally, the participants spoke. “Lea said she wanted to come to Germany to do some things. The Annauses reacted very angry. They were afraid that Lea would stay and that her son would suffer,” reports Eva.

But after one night (in separate houses) the about-face. “Suddenly Lea said, shy, that she wouldn’t come. I’m sure the pressure has been applied again,” says Eva. “Armed guards also arrived, it was terrible.” Powerless, Lea’s parents began the journey home.

Subsequently, Lea replied to messages even less often. Even when Eva gets cancer, she doesn’t change a thing. “Everything Lea writes is controlled. The Annaus have a cult effect on her, they manipulate her, they hold her tight,” Eva believes.

“Why isn’t it possible for a child to visit his sick mother? Then if Lea tells me she wants to be in Paraguay, I can live with that.”

Others who knew Lea well are also concerned. “It’s strange that she’s resisting coming to Dresden so much,” says her former best friend. Lea has also largely cut off contact with her and others.

Just like his training as a physician assistant, which he was excited about. Lea did this with her longtime pediatrician. “We were all horrified. Your performance was good. I don’t think everything is going right. Mother and daughter had a close relationship,” says the doctor. “Lea was happy, but also naive and childish”.

This is exactly what was used to influence her, Lea’s father believes. “She hasn’t reached the maturity of an adult yet. To me, she’s caught in a cult trap.”

Both Leah and the Annaus dispute this. “Lea is of legal age and has full legal capacity. She can therefore decide for herself where she wants to live, where she wants to travel and who she wants to meet with. This also applies to her mother visiting Germany,” said Erwin Annau . TAG24 in writing. At no time do you put pressure on Lea.

“I decided to stay here in Paraguay of my own free will,” Lea also wrote. There were certainly face-to-face discussions where her mother put pressure on her.

“He suffers from delusions that I am being manipulated,” writes Lea. “Anything I say that she doesn’t like will not be accepted.” The guards were only called for protection.

Even after repeated questions, Lea does not answer why she does not personally tell her mother in Dresden all this so that Eva can finally find peace.

No fear of viruses and diseases, no vaccinations, a free life without fear, without restrictions: with such promises, “El Paraíso Verde” attracts new emigrants to South American Paraguay (7.2 million inhabitants, about 40 percent are considered poor ).

The “green paradise” was founded in 2016 in a wetland near Caazapá by the Austrian couple Sylvia and Erwin Annau. “I’ve been a lateral thinker for as long as I can remember,” she writes on her website. The administrator of the deal is the joint-stock company Reljuv SA, whose powerful chairman Juan Buker maintains the best political contacts.

The area (16 square kilometers) is fenced, protected by guards. About 250 settlers are said to live in the camp and 700 employees work there. There should be up to 20,000 inhabitants, a city, villages with lakes, roads and an amusement park. In times of crisis, the settlement would therefore have to be 100% self-sufficient with food, water and energy.

A supermarket, cafeteria, restaurant, school, apartments and health center are said to have already been built. “It offers naturopathic and alternative health practitioners a new home,” the website states.

The green paradise is advertised as “the largest settlement project in South America”. If you want to move, you have to pay many thousands of euros for a piece of land.

Many houses have not yet been built. Buyers receive a title only after months of probation, provided “the settlers or the Reljuv have no legitimate objection,” writes Annau.

Until then (and after) they must live “according to the principles of mutual benevolence established by the Founders”.

Turnover is high, according to former residents. One has to do what he says or be kicked out, a former settler said in a report on the ARD network and ZDF YouTube channel “Y-Collective”. Money already invested is not always paid back in full, further reports suggest. Also, some lots are said to be difficult to build due to regular flooding.

According to the Federal Foreign Office, the crime rate and the propensity to use violence are high in the country. Drug trafficking is also flourishing. During the corona pandemic, Paraguay transformed into an Eldorado of vaccination opponents, lateral thinkers and right-wing conspiracy ideologues. In 2021, 3,440 Germans settled in Paraguay and, according to the embassy, ​​around 26,000 Germans live in the country.

Numerous emigrants are said to have recently turned their backs on the country. The reasons given in relevant internet forums were language problems (official languages ​​Spanish, Guaraní), low earning potential, extreme weather and differences in mentality.