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Boris Weisfeiler, 1976.
It has been twenty years since Prof. Weisfeiler vanished in Southern Chile on his way back to U.S. During five years of the U.S. Embassy investigation (1985-1989) the State Department made an insufficient, only limited effort to discern the truth about what really happened to Boris. More than 400 of the U.S. documents on Boris Weisfeiler's disappearance were declassified on June 30, 2000, showing that there was ample evidence that he became an American victim of repression during the Pinochet regime. Today Boris remains the one U.S. citizen among 1100 disappeared Chileans.
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1979.
“Department has been contacted […] concerning Prof. Boris Weisfeiler. He was scheduled to be back at the university January 14 for classes. He has not returned and his friends are extremely concerned. Prof. Weisfeiler has no family in U.S.” (The Department of State document. January 19, 1985)
The Department of State first contacted Boris’ sister, Olga, only in September 1990.
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1981.
“New information has recently been received which indicates that… at the time of his disappearance Weisfeiler was either on or very near to the Colonia property.” (The Department of State document. April 10,1985)
“There have been rumors for over a year that Weisfeiler is alive and detained in Colonia Dignidad” (The Department of State document. July 2, 1987)
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1981.
“Post [the U.S. Embassy] has recently received information that Russian-born Amcit [American citizen] Boris Weisfeiler, who disappeared near Colonia Dignidad… is being held there, with the knowledge of the Chilean military.” (The Department of State document. July 21, 1987).
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1984.
“In the first half of January 1985, source’s patrol received a radio call from two army troopers guarding the cable way that they turned away an individual trying to make use of it to cross the Los Sauces to the North bank of the Nuble River… The army patrol, which was under standing orders to arrest anyone found in the area, found Weisfeiler on the cordillera side…” (The Department of State document. July 23,1987)
Twenty years later after Boris' disappearance, I, Boris' sister Olga, am still searching for my brother.
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Chile. View from the plane.
Just a few months since I launched in Chile advertising and publicity campaign "Did you see this man?", I was flying to Chile again to lobby, together with the Action Committee on Colonia Dignidad and Visser family, the investigation into Boris' disappearance and Colonia Dignidad.
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| Valparaíso, Chile's leading port is the most picturesque in Chile.
Arriving to Santiago two days earlier than all of our meetings would start, I went to Valparaíso to meet the Bennetts family (of Spain). Fred and Patricia Bennetts just a couple of years ago learned about Boris' disappearance in Chile and called me from Spain expressing their solidarity and support for my continued search for Boris.
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| Fred and Pat Bennetts (Olga, right).
Patricia is the sister of the Chilean-British catholic priest, Michael R. Woodward. Michael was arrested on Sept. 22, 1973 and died after being tortured onboard the Chilean Navy flagship Esmeralda.
Immediately after the coup the Esmeralda was used by the Chilean Navy as a center for detention and torture in the port of Valparaíso.
Woodward has become a symbol of the violence of Chile’s 1973 military coup.
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| Michael (Miguel) was born in Valparaíso, Chile, and educated in England. On a small street in a poor area in the hills above Valparaíso where he lived and used to carry out social work is mural dedicated to Michael’s life. He lived and worked amongst the workers and the poor, becoming a worker priest in the Las Habas shipyards.
On March 7 2006 Michael Woodward was honored in a ceremony in Valparaíso’s Playa Ancha cemetery. A plaque on the memorial reads: “Here in a common grave, the bodies lie embraced. Other bodies, alone, lie near in the earth and the sea. One name represents them all: Miguel Woodward Yriberry, 1932-1973.”
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| Patricia Bennetts: "The life he led and the fight he carried on are more important than his death. But we have to find out the truth." For more than thirty years Michael’s family is fighting for truth and justice in Chile.
In November 2006, after 5 years of judicial investigation, an attempt to exhume Michael´s body was made at a site identified by a witness to his burial. It was unsuccessful. Contrary to cemetery records, in 1989 all the bodies in that area had been cleared away and disposed elsewhere. It seems likely that Michael´s body was amongst them.
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Loes Visser (of Holland): mother of Maarten Visser, an 18 year old Dutch tourist, who disappeared on December 12, 1985 from Volcano Osorno. In 1989 a man, who did not provide his true identity, said to Maarten’s mother: “Your son is alive and is in Colonia Dignidad.”
On February 26, 2005 Judge Juan Guzmán, accompanied by the Holland Ambassador Hinkynus Nijenhuiz and Loes and Paulus Visser, together with the Police Investigation started the search for Maarten's remains on Volcano Osorno. It was unsuccessful.
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| Paulus Visser, Maarten’s father.
Since December 1985 Maarten’s parents travel to Chile every year. While searching for leads or evidence to Maarten’s disappearance they contacted numerous military, judicial, human rights, and government authorities. They spoke to local residents and religious leaders, but are still unable to find any clues to what really happened with Maarten.
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| The photos of Maarten are the last ones that were taken in 1985 before he left Holland. One of the pictures was taken by Maarten himself at the Foz d'Iguasu in Brazil and sent home. Maarten traveled in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, before he came to Chile. Maarten spent only three days in Chile before he vanished. (Flyer prepared by Maarten's parents).
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 43 (left)
Maarten Visser, 18(right)
“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor do the years condemn."
- Laurence Binyon, 1914.
According to the latest sources "an American" and "a Dutchman" were brought to Colonia Dignidad by the military, and were given back to the military alive… Twenty years later, Boris' or Maarten's fates are still unknown.
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| Maarten Visser Memorial on Volcano Osorno, the place where Maarten was seen last.
On Christmas Day 2006, Maarten's parents held annual memorial ceremony together with Maarten's brother, two sisters, and their families. In continuous search for truth, for the first time ever, the parents, Loes and Paulus, visited the Colonia Dignidad grounds.
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Meeting with Deputy Fulvio Rossi (left), president of the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, and Deputy Carolina Tohá Morales (right). In the center, Sergio Laurenti, director of Amnesty International-Chile.
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| Mireya Garcia, Vice President of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared at the meeting with Deputies Rossi and Tohá.
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| Palacio Ariztía, the Santiago headquarters for Congressional offices.
Olga Weisfeiler (in front) and Loes and Paulus Visser (back) after the meeting with Deputies Rossi and Tohá.
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| At the meeting of the Action Committee on Colonia Dignidad.
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| Tribunales de Justicia - the Court House.
On November 23, we had a meeting with President of the Supreme Court Marcos Libedinsky.
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The Court House: Interviews after the meeting with the President of the Supreme Court Marcos Libedinsky.
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| The U.S. Embassy: meeting with Ambassador Craig Kelly.
"During her November 23, 2004 visit to the U.S. Embassy Olga Weisfeiler outlined the known details of her brother Boris' disappearance." (From the statement on the U.S. Embassy web site)
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| U.S. Ambassador to Chile Craig Kelly.
"The U.S. Embassy encourages anyone with information that may aid the investigation of Mr. Weisfeiler disappearance to come forward."
(Statement on the U.S. Embassy web site)
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| Meeting at the U.S. Embassy: from the left: Consul General Sean Murphy, Second Secretary Jeffrey Galvin, and Legal Attaché Joseph Tipton.
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| U.S. Ambassador to Chile Craig Kelly promised the Weisfeiler's family to follow up on the case.
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