Thanks to Dr. Reefer for this video which clearly shows the Dianetics Center Next Door to the Pablo Escobar Death House in Medellin, Colombia Carrera 79 #45 D 941. When my article on this was published on Tony Ortega’s blog, the Cult got the video taken down from YouTube. Please mirror.
Here is my orignal article on the Dianetics Center next to the Pablo Escobar Death House as it appeared on the Underground Bunker:
In Colombia, Scientology’s ‘Casa Hubbard’
has a pretty interesting neighbor
Regular correspondent Jeffrey Augustine has a rather startling discovery to share with us…
It’s December 2, 1993, and in Colombia’s city of Medellin, in the Los Olivos residential district, the world’s wealthiest and most violent drug dealer is hiding out in a nondescript two-story home. The man is the notorious Pablo Escobar, whose cocaine cartel has brutally murdered countless people. Even the United States is not safe. Miami has been gripped in a wave of violence and killings ordered by Escobar.
Escobar is talking to his son on the phone. A Colombian military intelligence operative intercepts the call and relays information to other members of the Search Bloc, a special unit of the National Police. Led by Colonel Hugo Martínez, the Search Bloc team moves in and stealthily approaches the building containing Escobar, located at Carrera 79B #45D-94. Alerted to their presence, Escobar says goodbye to his son.
Álvaro de Jesús Agudelo, a/k/a “El Limón,” is Escobar’s only bodyguard this day. Escobar and El Limón open fire on the police as they make their way upstairs. The two men then jump out of a second story window onto the roof of the smaller home next to their hideout. As they do so, another group of Search Bloc members make their way onto the neighboring rooftops.
The Final Moments: Heavily armed Search Bloc members close in on Escobar and El Limón
Escobar and his bodyguard never make it off the red tile rooftop of the house onto which they had jumped. El Limón is shot and killed almost immediately. The force of the gunfire propels his body off the rooftop of the house and onto the ground.
Escobar is trapped on the rooftop as he fires at the Search Bloc in a desperate attempt to escape. Two bullets rip through Escobar’s leg and torso. The fatal shot tears through Escobar’s right ear and kills him instantly. Escobar collapses on the tile roof. Colonel Martínez shouts into his radio, “Viva Colombia! We have just killed Pablo Escobar!”
Since that shootout, debates have raged over whether Escobar was actually killed by the police or ended his own life. He had reportedly told his family that if he were ever cornered, he would put a bullet into his ear, which was the location of the fatal shot. But either way, the location of that scene has become a local landmark, and you can find numerous websites and videos that provide a guide to finding the two-story hideout.
In one particular video of the location, the camera operator shows that the old hideout has gained a third story, but it’s clearly still recognizable as the house were Escobar had been hiding out…
And when he zooms out a little, his eye is drawn to a curious looking volcano next door…
As he then quickly pans past that next door storefront, we can see that it bears the name “Casa Hubbard”….
A check of Scientology’s website confirms that the Scientology Mission in Medellin is, in fact, located right next door to the Pablo Escobar death house:
Scientology’s choice of location for a mission is, in our view, a perfect metaphor: Scientology is a transnational criminal syndicate run by a crime boss with an army of enforcers and paid thugs.
— Jeffrey Augustine
Thank you for that sobering connection, Jeffrey. And looking at the most recent Google streetview of the location, taken in July 2017, you can see on the left the low rooftop where Escobar came to rest, in the middle the two-story-turned-three-story hideout (now a “Spanish School”), and on the right the building no longer has its Casa Hubbard signage. As so many other Scientology missions around the world, this one appears to exist only in a church website directory.
Scientologist and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan compared Jews to termites. This is Holocaust language — but this is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Louis Farrakhan.
The CSI Board of Directors granted a license to the Nation of Islam to use Dianetics and Scientology. CSI’s license to the Nation of Islam has not been suspended or revoked due to Mr. Farrakhan’s conduct.
Neither COB RTC Mr. David Miscavige nor the CSI Board of Directors have taken any disciplinary action against Scientologist Louis Farrakhan.
The conclusion here is that the Church of Scientology International and David Miscavige, by their silence and inaction, have acquised to — and therefore entered into agreement with — the anti-Semitism of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
Los Angeles, September 5, 2018: A woman dropped by our house in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz and asked to speak to my wife, Karen de la Carriere. Karen was busy, so I talked to her.
She handed me her card, which identified her as a private investigator named Rebecca Dobkin.
I asked her who she was working for, and she told me she was working for an attorney named Amanda Touchton. I asked her to spell it.
She said that Touchton represented Heber Jentzsch.
Heber is Karen’s ex-husband. He has also been, since the 1980s, the nominal president of the Church of Scientology International. I say “nominal,” because it was always little more than an honorary title — the real power to run Scientology was invested in founder L. Ron Hubbard and then, after his death in 1986, current leader David Miscavige.
Heber was well liked by Scientologists and also got along with reporters — for a while, at least, he was the person Scientology sent out to handle questions about the church, and he was pretty good at it. He was also frequently on stage at Scientology’s major events. But then, in the 1990s, his role seemed to get smaller and smaller, until he vanished pretty much altogether.
When Miscavige’s bizarre jail for upper level management was created at Scientology’s secretive management compound Int Base in 2004 — it eventually became known as “The Hole” — Heber was one of its prisoners, which we know from multiple witnesses. Heber has been out of sight almost entirely since then.
One exception was when Alexander Jentzsch, the only child that Karen and Heber had together, died in 2012 at the age of 27. Karen by then had left the church and wasn’t allowed to see her son’s body (he had died of pneumonia, exacerbated by a pain medication he was taking, according to the LA Coroner), and at first she was told that Scientology planned to have no memorial at all. But after the media made a stink about it — including Tony at the Village Voice — the church did hold a ceremony (Karen wasn’t invited) and Heber showed up for it, the first time we’d seen a photo of him in years.
[Last known photo of Heber Jentzsch, center, at the 2012 memorial for his son Alexander at the Scientology Hollywood Celebrity Centre with Stan and Phillipa Gerson.]
Tony has reported in the past how Heber, who is from a huge Mormon family, has been missed by his relatives, who want to hear how he’s doing.
Dobkin told me that Amanda Touchton was representing Heber “in a matter related to Leah Remini’s reality TV show.”
She mispronounced Leah’s last name as “Reh-MEENIE.”
She said that she was investigating an incident that had happened at Int Base, which is near San Jacinto, about 85 miles east of Los Angeles. Apparently, someone had asked law enforcement to make a welfare check on Heber at the base.
I knew nothing about it, I told her.
She claimed that Heber had been thrown into the back of a police car during the welfare check, which I found hard to believe. Law enforcement officers checking on an 82-year-old’s welfare aren’t likely to treat them like a dangerous criminal.
The Los Angeles Police Department is not even pretending to be neutral when it comes to its relationship to the Church of Scientology.
The long and suspicious relationship between the Church of Scientology and the LAPD continues unabated. Captain Cory Palka of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division allowed the Church of Scientology to install an informational kiosk in his station house. Palka has long been known to critics as an ardent supporter of the Church of Scientology.
An alert local citizen happened to drop by the Hollywood Division and spotted this egregious violation of Church & State. The violation was reported to American Atheists. Geoffrey Blackwell, an attorney for American Atheists, immediately sent a letter to Steve Soboroff, President of the Los Angeles Police Commission demanding the kiosk be removed.
Mr. Soboroff was not pleased with this situation and the kiosk was summarily removed. American Atheists commended the LAPD for its swift action. We do as well. Further, we trust that an investigation and formal disciplinary action will be take against Captain Palka and whomever else on his staff permitted the Scientology kiosk to be installed.
The Scientology kiosk in the Hollywood Division was not trivial. The kiosk was powered by electricity, required formal installation, and took up floor space. Los Angeles taxpayers paid for all of this, and, the kiosk violated LAPD rules, Constitutional principles, and a wide body of established case law. Moreover, this kiosk raises troubling questions about the LAPD’s decades-long relationship with the Church of Scientology that many of us consider highly inappropriate.
Captain Palka’s incredibly poor judgment in the matter of the Scientology kiosk is a genuine reason for concern: If Palka will violate LAPD rules and clear Constitutional principles in such a brazen matter for Scientology, then what else will he do for Scientology? And more importantly, what has he done for Scientology in the past?
There clearly needs to be an investigation of Scientology’s undue influence within the LAPD. This Scientology Kiosk Affair evokes images of the seedy fake medal that retired Colombian National Police General Mena awarded David Miscavige in Barbados:
Left: Captain Cory Palka accepts a check from Scientology on behalf of the LAPD. Right: Retired Colombian Police General pins a fake medal on Scientology leader David Miscavige. Scientology’s sleazy relationship with cops who will “play ball” continues unabated.
Here is the letter sent to Steve Soboroff, President of the Los Angeles Police Commission, by American Atheists’ attorney Geoffrey Blackwell. Note: Hover your cursor over the mouse to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame.
General Mena meets with Tom Cruise in 2015. Photo from El Espectador.
Thanks to scientia posting today in comments on Tony Ortega’s article on Colombia, we learn that Tom Cruise met with General Mena in 2015 when the actor was filming American Made. This is the same year David Miscavige opened the new Ideal Org in Bogota. El Espectador did an article with photos on Cruise meeting General Mena.
It was General Mena who, after he had retired, awarded David Miscavige an unauthorized medal in Barbados. This has caused a great deal of controversy in Colombia and hearings are being held by the Senate. Colombia Reports noted in its recent article that Colombia’s police are embarrassed over the medal the retired General Mena gave Scientology leader David Miscavige:
The El Espectador article shows how closely Tom Cruise was working with David Miscavige & OSA to further safepoint Scientology in Colombia. Tellingly, General Mena did not allow Scientology’s front man Colonel Prado to appear in the pictures of himself with Tom Cruise. It seems that like David Miscavige, the General wanted Tom Cruise all to himself. General Mena perhaps ordered his subordinate Colonel Prado to go write some traffic tickets that day and stay away from HQ.
Although Cruise downplays his Scientology involvement, being able to link Cruise so explicitly to General Mena shows Mena to be the likely Kingpin on the Colombian side of the Scientology-Colombia operation.
Photo from El Espectador.
An El Espectador photo of Tom Cruise with Colombian soldiers:
Here is my recent podcast with former Scientology Colombia staff member Adrian Vanegas:
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Colombian Minister of Defense Dr. Silva discuss defense cooperation plans at the Colombian Ministry of Defense in Bogota, Colombia April 15, 2010. DoD Photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison(RELEASED)
The above photo is located on the US Department of Defense archive website. Link to Photo. Per the official caption, this 2010 photo is of then U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates meeting Colombian Minister of Defense Dr. Silva in Bogota in 2010. The significance of the photo is explained in this article.
In the “Meet a Scientologist” episode with Colombian Scientologist and comedian Andrés López, López makes the claim that widespread “word of mouth” enthusiasm resulted in the Colombian Ministry of Defense coming to know about a free show he was doing to entertain a brigade of Colombian troops.
Andrés López’s implication was that the entire Colombian Ministry of Defense was so excited about a comedian doing a free show that they dropped their concerns about guerilla rebels and narcotics traffickers and met in formal session to celebrate the Scientology comedian’s generosity. López paints a picture of soldiers so absolutely starved for any scrap of entertainment that they were wildly grateful for his unheard of gesture of a comedian entertaining troops. To hear López tell the story, this has never been done in the entire history of the world.
This is so typical of Scientology to make a big deal out of an utterly mundane matter. The self-important López has basically insulted every entertainer who has ever done a free show for any military. Many celebrities have gone into war zones to entertain troops.
A photo is then shown in the video at this juncture. The photo is supposed to be the Colombian Ministry of Defense enthusing about Scientologist López’s show. The video subtitle shown is López’s voiceover:
Here is the fact: Scientology TV has ripped off a US Department of Defense photo to depict the Colombian Ministry of Defense meeting to discuss the generoisty of the great Andrés López doing a free show for the troops.
Taken in 2010, the photo shows US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and US Ambassador to Colombia William R. Brownfield and their staff members seated on the left side of the table. On the right side of the table is a US Admiral seated next to Colombian Minister of Defense Dr. Gabriel Silva. The only Colombian in the photo is Dr. Silva. Everyone else shown are Americans. This is extremely sloppy work on the part of Scientology TV. No fact checking of the context of the photo was done. This garbage is what Scientology TV is producing. Of course, there could be something more sinister at work as we cover later in the article.
What we focus on here is that Scientology TV has used the images of former US Defense Secretary Gates, US Ambassador William R. Brownfield, and Colombian Minister of Defense Dr. Silva without their knowledge or permission. While the image is in the public domain, the use of it to suggest that American and Colombian officials endorse Scientology is misleading and dishonest. When I saw Robert Gates in the video I knew immediately who he was. I searched for the official photo on the DoD website and found it in a matter of minutes. Scientology TV is not honest nor does its staff appear to understand that details matter in a documentary.
ANDRES LOPEZ IS ALSO DISHONEST IN THE VIDEO
Scientologist Andrés López is also dishonest in the video. He claimed he was doing a “free show” for the military when in actuality his “free show” was a presentation of Scientology’s booklet The Way to Happiness:
Although then Colombian President Santos appears at the event, the Scientology TV video oddly glosses over President Santos’ appearance. Santos’ image quickly passes by in a few seconds. This is extraordinarily strange considering that Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending Colombia’s 52 year old violent and bloody war between FARC and the Government.
Why does Scientology TV skim over the appearance of an actual Nobel Prize laureate at its TWTH event? Why does Andrés López downplay it as well? The appearance of President Santos could be a separate video in its own right. Scientology has never had the President of a country or a Nobel Prize winner in any of its events or videos and yet when it finally has both in the esteemed President Santos it is a non-event.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced at 1100 today (7th October 2016) that it has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people. The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process. This tribute is paid, not least, to the representatives of the countless victims of the civil war.”
This lack of emphasis on President Santos is extremely suspect as Scientology never wastes any PR and is, in fact, so desperate for PR that its videos often feature very minor third-rate officials with meaningless titles such as the Third Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture in Aruba.
Here is one item we’re looking at: In November 2017 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism published information from the Panama Papers showing that Santos was in control of two offshore companies in Barbados. This is the island where David Miscavige received his fake medal from General Mena. There may be absolutely nothing to this at all. However, the Scientology Money Project will investigate and continue to connect dots as we dig into the money trail between Scientology, Scientologists, and Colombian officials.
Bottom Line: Scientologist Andrés López entertains troops only promote Scientology.
In exchange for López doing a show, Colombian soldiers were required, at the orders of senior Colombian military officials, to wave copies Scientology’s booklet The Way to Happiness in the air. This is all done for Scientology PR:
Senator Cepeda is calling for an investigation of the links between Scientology and the Colombian police and military. One person of interest in any inquiry would be Andrés López. If the government seized his e-mails and phone records it could be most interesting.
The potential for a Colombian Congressional investigation leads me to conclude that I could be wrong about Scientology being sloppy by using a photo of senior US officials as a substitute for a photo of the actual members of the Colombian Defense Ministry. It could be the case that the actual Colombian officials involved with Scientology didn’t want their names or faces shown in any Scientology for a good reason: The story has a bad odor to it.
Wealthy Colombian Scientologist Enrique Jaimes of the firm J.E. Jaimes Ingenieros S.A. makes a cameo appearance at the end of the López video:
Where have we seen Mr. Jaimes before? Oh yes, he has a few IAS trophies:
To educate Scientology tinpot dictator David Miscavige on what a real Colombian award ceremony looks like here it is. This 2009 ceremony features Colombian President Uribe and Defense Minister Silva. The ceremony and the Order of Merit presented to US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead were legally authorized and performed publicly in Colombia:
US Defense Department photo of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead, middle, is congratulated by Minister of Defense Gabriel Silva, left, after receiving the Admiral Padilla Naval Order of Merit from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. With Silva and Uribe are Gen. Freddy Padilla, commander of Colombian military forces and Adm. Guillermo Barrera, right, commander of Colombian naval forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tiffini Jones Vanderwyst/Released) This Image was released by the United States Navy with the ID 091203-N-8273J-152
Compare this to what a fake and unauthorized Scientology medal ceremony in Barbados looks like. This tawdry Miscavige Fake Medal Affair appears to be unraveling as the Colombian Parliament investigates. Adios Dave!
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is clear and unambiguous in the call to action contained in its March 16, 2018 press release: Political leaders and national media must call out Louis Farrakhan for his Anti-Semitism.
In 2011 the Simon Wiesenthal Center awarded Tom Cruise its highest honor which is the Humanitarian Award. There was a public outcry inasmuch as Tom Cruise belonged to the Church of Scientology, a group defined by its inhumanity.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center was informed by every means possible that the Church of Scientology had partnered with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. The Wiesenthal Center refused to see that in giving Tom Cruise a medal it was, by extension, engaging in willful ignorance concerning the Church of Scientology and its strategic partnership with the Nation of Islam.
Rabbi Heir, the Dean and founder of the Wiesenthal Center, defended the award to Tom Cruise by declaring, “We should not engage in any guilt by association… We’ve given a medal of valor to the Pope. Does that mean we agree with everything the church has done? No.” Writer Danielle Berrin noted that Rabbi Heir was “focusing on Cruise-the-individual, not Cruise-the Scientology missionary.” We personally don’t buy these arguments as they negate the precept of collective responsibility, a core teaching of Judaism. While Tom Cruise is not Anti-Semitic, he has never once publicly denounced the Anti-Semitism of his fellow Scientologist Louis Farrakhan. Why does Cruise remain silent given his award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center? It appears that Cruise simply used the Wiesenthal Center for PR reasons. We say this because Cruise has not taken any affirmative actions to fight the Anti-Semitism within Scientology’s own ranks.
To argue that Tom Cruise shares no moral or collective responsibility for the Church of Scientology and its partnership with the Nation of Islam is a bogus argument, particularly given Tom Cruise’s public and financial support of the Church of Scientology beginning after 911 and continuing through his 2011 award from the Wiesenthal Center. Tom Cruise publicly and profanely attacked Scientology’s critics during a Rolling Stone interview in 2004. Rolling Stone’s Neil Strauss wrote in his piece The Passion of the Cruise:
Since Scientology, in the popular imagination, is such a loaded word — often associated with heavy-handed recruitment tactics, strong-arm-lawyer assaults and steep membership and course fees — one would think that Cruise wouldn’t be so willing to take a journalist through that world.
“Who are those people that say those things?” Cruise asks when I bring it up over lunch one day. “Because I promise you, it isn’t everybody. But I look at those people and I say, ‘Bring it. I’m a Scientologist, man. What do you want to know?” I don’t mind answering questions.”
He lists some of Scientology’s selling points: its drug-abuse, prison-rehabilitation and education programs. “Some people, well, if they don’t like Scientology, well, then, fuck you.” He rises from the table. “Really.” He points an angry finger at the imaginary enemy. “Fuck you.” His face reddens. “Period.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center knew all of this, was informed of it in 2011, and nevertheless chose to ignore the evidence.
At the time of the Simon Wiesenthal’s award to Tom Cruise award in 2011, many of us who are critics of Scientology informed the Simon Wiesenthal Center about the Church of Scientology’s brutality and inhumanity and its relationship to Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Our calls and e-mails fell on deaf ears and were instead met with the Center’s defense of its award to Tom Cruise.
Here’s what the Simon Wiesenthal Center can do if it is serious about Louis Farrakhan:
1. The Simon Wiesenthal Center must publicly call out David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology International for doing absolutely nothing to stop Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in spreading Anti-Semitism. Scientology has never once issued a press release stating that it abhors Anti-Semitism. Scientology remains completely silent about Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitism when he is in fact a Scientologist and has praised L. Ron Hubbard numerous times. Likewise, Farrakhan’s top lieutenant Tony Muhammad has praised L. Ron Hubbard even as he has spread Farrakhan’s message of Anti-Semitism.
2. The Simon Wiesenthal Center must publicly demand that Scientology leader David Miscavige declare Louis Farrakhan a Suppressive Person for preaching and teaching Anti-Semitism. Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitism violates Scientology’s incessant calls for religious tolerance. Now is the time when the Church of Scientology has to actually put its call for tolerance into action by declaring Mr. Farrakhan an SP. Failing to do so is an admission that Scientology’s call for tolerance is nothing more than hollow words and empty PR. The STAND League either means something or it does not, in which case STAND is a fraud.
3. The Simon Wiesenthal Center must publicly demand that Scientology leader David Miscavige order the Church of Scientology International to revoke any and all licenses to the Nation of Islam to practice and deliver Dianetics and Scientology. The reason for the revocation would be Anti-Semitism. The Church of Scientology International should not allow an Anti-Semitic group to have, use, or deliver the materials of Dianetics and Scientology.
4. The Simon Wiesenthal Center should ask, and expect, its honoree Tom Cruise to personally intervene in this matter and present the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s case against Louis Farrakhan to Scientology leader David Miscavige.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has to take the initiative here by going on the offense and calling out the Church of Scientology for its support of Louis Farrakhan. Press releases aren’t working. The Church of Scientology has leverage over Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam and should be called upon to use that leverage to curb Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitism.
The Simon Wiesenthal centers enjoys tremendous prestige and its supporters include some of the most wealthy and powerful people in the world. The Center can ask its supporters to support the call for the Church of Scientology to do something about Louis Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitism.
Retired Colombian Police General Carlos Ramiro Mena Bravo presented an unauthorized medal to David Miscavige. Outrage has ensued in Colombia over giving an American cult leader an undeserved and unauthorized medal. An investigation of this insult to Colombia in underway by the authorities.
Tom Cruise recently took late night show host James Corden skydiving. The two men skydived to promote Cruise’s monster box office film Mission Impossible – Fallout. In the video, Cruise showcased his expert skydiving skills while Corden nervously fumbled his way through his first jump in which he was attached to a master skydiver with 7,000 jumps. Cruise’s landing was picture perfect as he glided effortlessly to the ground. James Corden, on the other hand, skidded to a rather abrupt stop and then did a face plant.
If anyone could use Tom Cruise’s help with a parachute right now it is Scientology leader David Miscavige, a man who finds himself in a sudden, calamitous, and unexpected free fall in the Colombian media. Miscavige appears to be headed straight down for a face plant in Colombia.
Despite decades of Scientology “safepointing” itself in Colombia, no one in Colombia is coming to Miscavige’s defense as he is being pilloried in the media for having received a medal from a retired Colombian police general who had no authority to award the medal.
Never one for modesty, Miscavige went fullblown Messiah in this bizarre award ceremony and had the general give him the medal for, “saving humanity from violence, evil, terrorism, drug dealings and all the negative factors that threaten it.” This screenshot from davidmiscavige.org tells the story of Miscavige’s runaway ego:
David Miscavige is a certifiable megalomaniac. He actually believes that he has personally saved humanity from “violence, evil, terrorism, drug dealings and all the negative factors that threaten it.” Moreover, he wanted a medal given to him at a special ceremony in recognition of his having saved humanity. This is the delusional state in which Mr. Miscavige exists.
The basis of Miscavige’s medal is a ridiculous claim the Church of Scientology’s has been making for many years now. Specifically, Scientology claims that its efforts in distributing millions of copies of The Way to Happiness brought peace and calm to Colombia and therefore paved the way for the 2016 peace treaty between the Colombian government and FARC rebels that ended a 50 year civil war in Colombia. This claim so ridiculous that it deserves nothing but scorn. Here is the claim for Scientology’s own website:
Two things to note in this story:
1. The event at which Miscavige received his medal for saving humanity took place in Bridgetown, Barbados and not in Colombia. This is the first indication that the presentation of the medal was not authorized by the Colombian government; had it been authorized the event would have taken place dockside in the Port of Cartagena where the fifty-year old Freewinds frequently docks and/or goes into drydock for repairs.
2. Aside from the retired police General Carlos Ramiro Mena Bravo, there were no Colombian government, military, or police officials at the Barbados event. The absence of Colombian officials also indicates that this was not an authorized event. The retired General Mena has been rebuked for wearing his uniform without permission and displaying the Colombian flag and other state symbols without permission. Retired generals are not allowed to do these things without explicit permission as they no longer hold office and are civilians.
When David Miscavige opened the Bogota Ideal Org on July 15, 2015 there were several Colombian officials who spoke at the event and participated in the rope pull:
L-R: Dr. Sandra Rincón, Advisor to the Ministry of Social Integration, Bogotá City; Lt. Colonel Carlos Peña, Coordinator for Anti-Drug Education, Colombian Anti-Narcotics Department; Captain John Galindo, Operations Director, Circle of Aid Technicians of Colombia; David Miscavige; Lt. Colonel Anstrongh Polania, Chief of the Department of Joint Operational Law, Ministry of Defense; and Lt. Colonel Edgar Rojas, Special Ops Commander for Rural Zones, National Colombian Police.
DAVID MISCAVIGE — FALLOUT
Now that David Miscavige is in a free fall in the Colombian media, he suddenly has no friends or allies in the Colombian government — and indeed who would come forward to defend the man given his grandiose Messianic claims? Even Colonel Ricardo Antonio Prado, long the face of the Colombian National Police in Scientology PR and at its events, including events held on the Freewinds, has not appeared anywhere to defend Miscavige:
Colonel Ricardo Antonio Prado, the long-time champion of Scientology in the Colombian National Police. Will the David Miscavige scandal force him into retirement?
Miscavige has no defenders and is instead receiving his just and due comeuppance in a barrage of negative headlines. These headlines are translated via Google:
Text of a Google-Translated Article in Colombia
Translation via Google: Controversy for awarding leader of Scientology — The ceremony was held in Barbados, for “saving humanity from violence (…)”.
As portions of this translated article from El Espectaror makes clear, David Miscavige — in his perpetual quest for self-glorification — has gotten a retired Colombian general into trouble:
David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology have badly embarrassed themselves in Colombia. However, as of the date of publication of this article, Scientology has not issued a press release stating that David Miscavige would return this unauthorized and unsanctioned medal.
As this story continues to unfold, we’re wondering how many chartered planes full of Scientology lawyers bearing suitcases full of cash David Miscavige is flying down to Colombia in an attempt make the medal legitimate. On the other hand, no amount of money and lawyers is going to persuade anyone in Colombia to legitimize Miscavige’s claims to have saved humanity.Nevertheless, David Miscavige plays for keeps. In our view, he has no intention of giving up his fake medal and it will remain on his vanity website.
In our opinion, the entire matter reeks of a caper between a retired general and Scientology. There has been a claim put forward that the general authorized the medal while he was still in office in December 2017 but that Miscavige was not available to receive his medal for saving humanity and instead waited six months. This claim to legitimacy rings false. Miscavige charters a private jet when he travels. It would be nothing for him to fly from Tampa to Cartagena for an officially-sanctioned ceremony and award when the general was still in office. Instead, Miscavige waited six months to receive the award in an unsanctioned ceremony in Barbados at the end of the 30th Maiden Voyage cruise of the Freewinds.
General Mena Bravo surely must have known there would be blowback from the Colombian government and people for him giving an official award to an American cult leader. This is why, in our view, Mena played a game in which he technically authorized the award when he was in office but then waited until he was retired to award it. Mena broke the rules by wearing his uniform and using the Colombian flag, but so what? He is well established in Colombia and will likely receive a slap on the hand for this bit of capering. Alternately, if this story doesn’t die a quick death in the Colombian media, whatever Scientology paid Mena Bravo for this caper may be discovered and publicized. This is a calculated risk Mena chose to take.
When Pope Francis visited Colombia in September 2017, he was greeted in Bogota by President Juan Manual Santos and the First Lady. Thousands of people lined the streets for the Holy Father’s procession. There was no seedy ceremony in Barbados with a retired police general.
This is how a true global ecclesiastical leader is welcomed in Colombia:
As is being reported by International Scientology News and other sites, the medal Scientology leader David Miscavige received in Barbados from a retired Colombian Police official was not authorized by the Colombian Police. This explains why the ceremony was held in Barbados and not in the Colombian port of Cartagena.
The story is blowing up in Colombia and soon the news of David Miscavige’s fake medal will become international news. This story is reminiscent of David Miscavige’s fraud with the Atlantic Advertorial:
The publication on the website of David Miscavige, world leader of Scientology, of a decoration made by General (r) Carlos Mena last June, has generated controversy because the retired officer acted on behalf of the institution without his permission .
According to the Miscavige website, on June 23 in Bridgetown, Barbados, the officer, who is observed in the photographs in his police uniform, delivered “on behalf of the Colombian National Police” the transparency medal of the General Inspection Brigadier General Jaime Ramírez Gómez.
The resolution to grant said medal to Miscavige, apparently, was signed by the same General (r) Mena last December, when he was still Inspector General of the Police, a position he held until January, when he retired for having completed his years of service In the institution.
However, sources consulted by The W confirmed that neither in the current General Inspectorate nor in the Police Directorate were they aware of the trip of General (r) Mena to Barbados, which apparently was on June 22, for -estando uniformed- to decorate Miscavige in an act in which he was recognized as Inspector General of the Police and in which national symbols were displayed, such as the Colombian flag.
That is, as understood on the Miscavige website, General (r) Mena acted on behalf of the National Police, although he did not have authorization to do so.
Other retired officers consulted by La W explained that this type of acts or decorations could be done by a retired officer, only if the director of the Police, in this case General Jorge Hernando Nieto, authorizes it, which did not happen in This time.
For this reason, within the Police it is investigated what exactly happened and what actions the Institution could take by the use of its name in this act in foreign territory.
