Tomorrow, Colombia’s Congress is holding hearings regarding the Scientology scandal that the media there has been feeding on. We told you last time that an upstart federal senator, Iván Cepeda, sparked the congressional investigation when he asked the country’s new defense minister to report back about Scientology’s infiltration of the country’s military and national police.
That new defense minister (the national government was only seated a couple of weeks ago) deferred, saying that it was the job of the country’s attorney general to look into the matter, and tomorrow the Congress will begin to hear some testimony about the scandal. Our man in Bogotá will be sending us dispatches about it.
One person who apparently won’t be giving testimony is a central figure in the brouhaha, Colonel Ricardo Prado, formerly of the national police and a Scientology “Freedom medal” winner.
For years, we watched as Scientology’s publications boasted about how Prado was Scientology’s main point man in Bogotá and Cartagena, spreading around Scientology materials to millions of Colombian citizens and military officers, and making astounding claims that it had resulted in huge improvements to the country.
To us, it just looked like another load of bull from Scientology leader David Miscavige, who is always selling a line of nonsense to his wealthy donors to keep them forking over large checks. But Miscavige apparently went a step too far when he had another national police figure, retired general Carlos Ramiro Mena, pin a medal on him at the end of this year’s “Maiden Voyage” celebrations in Barbados on June 23. That ceremony became the ignition point for the current scandal.
For a few weeks now, the Colombian press has been on a tear, looking through old copies of Scientology’s “Freedom” magazine and finding the photos and articles we were seeing for years, showing Prado and other officers cooperating with Scientology’s various front groups. (A new piece in Tiempo, Colombia’s biggest newspaper, has wonderful photos from 2015 of the Colombian Air Force shuttling Scientologists with “Youth for Human Rights” around the country in military helicopters. Oops.)
It’s easy to find those old articles and photos about Prado. Here’s a fun one from a 2015 issue of Freedom:
And Freedom’s caption: “Inspired and encouraged by Col. Ricardo Prado, Colombian police and military units passed out millions of copies of The Way to Happiness in every part of the nation, with visible and measurable reduction in crime and violence.”
In this case (as in so many others) Scientology’s obsession with documenting everything it does has backfired in a big way.
While things are swirling in Colombia, however, the real star of the show is watching comfortably from Florida. Our thanks to Rod Keller, who spotted the photo you see at the top of the story — it’s Col. Prado, taken at last Friday night’s “graduation” ceremony at the Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology’s holiest place and the centerpiece of its spiritual mecca, the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. It was posted to Facebook by a Brazilian Scientologist, Lucia Winther, who dutifully repeated the Scientology mantra about Prado…
This is Colonel Prado, who won the Freedom medal for the fantastic results of the mass distribution work of the book The Way to Happiness by L. Ron Hubbard in Colombia! The rates of crime and violence plummeted and peace was signed between FARC and the government! Colombia is one of the best countries for tourism in the world!
So while Prado, now in civilian clothes, enjoys his fame among Scientologists as a Freedom medal winner, back in Colombia his colleagues are in some hot water for all the help they gave Scientology over the years.
Tiempo is especially interested in the Bogotá Ideal Org opening in 2015, when Miscavige got no less than four Colombian officials in uniform to get up on stage and talk pretty about Scientology.
(You might remember that the locals were excited by rumors that actor Tom Cruise might also make the grand opening, which turned out not to be the case. But just a month later, Cruise did visit the Ideal Org and we got photographic proof of it, at a time when some of the tabloids were trying to convince readers that Cruise had left Scientology. At the time, Cruise was in the country filming scenes for the move “Mena,” which was ultimately titled American Made.)
One of the officials at the ceremony, a Lt. Col. Anstrongh Polanía, talked about how great Scientology’s “human rights” campaigns were and how they had been spread to the entire Colombian Army in only a year…
Actual caption from Scientology’s own press release:
“I saw your human rights program reaching down to the very foundation of our institution: the Colombian soldier. A program that, in a clear and understandable way, teaches the importance of respecting human rights. Working together we reached 100 percent of the Colombian Army in just 12 months.” — Lt. Colonel Anstrongh Polanía, Chief of the Department of Joint Operational Law, Ministry of Defense
He was followed by another uniformed official, this time from the national police…
From Scientology’s press release:
“The Way to Happiness is a spectacular tool. I read it, and re-read it. It changed the way I think. It keeps me motivated constantly and I want that for others. L. Ron Hubbard’s wisdom has given me a route. And believe me, it is the checklist for life. Even when I am in the jungle, The Way to Happiness keeps me grounded.” — Lt. Colonel Edgar Rojas, Special Ops Commander for Rural Zones, Colombian National Police
In all, Miscavige managed to get four uniformed officials to endorse the new Ideal Org that day. And beginning tomorrow, the Colombian Congress is going to be getting some testimony about it. We can hardly wait.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 20, 2018 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
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