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An age progressed sketch of Boris Weisfeiler (right) designed by the FBI, March 2006.
Despite the formal permission by former president Lagos in 2002, the FBI has been never before involved in the investigation of disappearance of this American citizen. The FBI’s assistance and involvement in the investigation was rejected by the judge then responsible for the Weisfeiler case.
Viewed: 1006 times.
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| In January 1981 Boris Weisfeiler received U.S. citizenship.
“More than 3,000 people disappeared or were killed during Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule. Weisfeiler was one of four American victims but only he remains missing.” (- Eduardo Gallardo, Associated Press Writer; March 31, 2006)
Viewed: 886 times.
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1981
A Russian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, Boris Weisfeiler was 43 when he was arrested by a military patrol while camping near Parral, 210 miles south of the capital Santiago in 1985.”
(- Eduardo Gallardo, AP; March 31, 2006)
Viewed: 747 times.
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1984
Weisfeiler, an avid outdoorsman, was hiking in a mountainous region. He vanished while walking in the area of a mysterious German colony called Colonia Dignidad.
“The circumstances behind the disappearance of Weisfeiler who, Chilean authorities and his sister say, was in the country as a tourist, has remained a mystery."
(- Eduardo Gallardo, AP; March 31, 2006)
Viewed: 718 times.
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| Boris Weisfeiler, 1984
The Pennsylvania State University mathematics professor has been missing since January 1985.
President Bachelet:
“…There are still disappeared people in our country, and as President I take full responsibility for this open wound. We will deal with it with good will and determination. We will do everything within our power to advance towards the truth and for greater justice.”
(- The Santiago Times, April 27, 2006)
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Plaza de la Constitucion
Since Weisfeiler’s last trip in 2004, the Chilean government, judicial, and military officials changed. In January 2006 Ministro Enrique Tapia assumed his new position of the President of the Supreme Court; on March 9th General Oscar Izurieta was appointed as the new Army Commander in Chief; on March 11 President of Chile Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated.
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| Santiago's Court; Olga Weisfeiler
“Weisfeiler said she would remain in Chile for a week to meet with the government, court officials and army commander Gen. Oscar Izurieta to ask for support.”
(- Eduardo Gallardo, AP; March 31, 2006)
Viewed: 833 times.
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| Michelle Bachelet, then Minister of Defense, and Olga Weisfeiler; 2002.
"President Bachelet has heard of the Weisfeiler case before, briefed in 2002 as minister of defense under former President Lagos, and most recently by U.S. Secretary Rice upon urging from Congress earlier in March 2006."
(- Weisfeiler family News Release, March 27 2006)
Viewed: 724 times.
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| Secretary Rice with President Bachelet, March 11 2006 (courtesy of the U.S. Embassy)
"Several members of Congress urged Rice to discuss the Weisfeiler case with Bachelet. Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman, said a U.S. government bureau reported that Rice did address the issue with Bachelet. "She (Rice) emphasized the importance that the U.S. government attaches to this case," Higgins said. "And the Chilean president said it was important to Chile, as well."
(- Adam Smeltz, Centre Daily, March 16 2006)
Viewed: 837 times.
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| A U.S.Congeressional letter to President of Chile Michelle Bachelet.
“A bi-partisan group of 27 U.S. Senators and Representatives wrote a formal letter of inquiry to the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet regarding the fate and possible whereabouts of Penn State professor Boris Weisfeiler, the American citizen who disappeared in Chile in 1985.”
(- Weisfeiler family News Release, March 27 2006)
Viewed: 764 times.
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Olga Weisfeiler at Palacio de la Moneda
The letter was delivered on the morning March 27, 2006 to the President Bachelet’s office by Weisfeiler’s family.
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| U.S. congressional letter stamped ‘received’ by the Chilean presidential office.
The letter represents the first piece of direct, formal correspondence between members of the U.S. Congress and newly inaugurated Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
Viewed: 728 times.
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| Consejo de Defensa del Estado building.
Meeting with Chile’s State Defense Council of the Chilean government. In the past, Carlos Mackenny met with the Weisfeiler family to discuss the case when he was in the Ministry of Interior, in 2002 with then Minister of Interior, Jose Miguel Insilza.
Viewed: 666 times.
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| Carlos Mackenny, President of the Chile's State Defense Council, and Olga Weisfeiler.
During the meeting Carlos Mackenny, Olga Weisfeiler, CDE's attorney Maria Teresa Munoz, and Weisfeiler's family attorney Hernan Fernandez discussed details of Weisfeiler’s disappearance case considering further possible legal actions.
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| Tribunales de justica
(Supreme Court)
During the March 30th meeting, President of the Supreme Court (acting) Ricardo Galvez assured Weisfeiler family as well as Consul General, Sean Murphy, of the Supreme Court’s full support of continued by Judge Zepeda investigation.
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U.S. Ambassador Craig Kelly and Olga Weisfeiler
Meeting with U.S. Ambassador Kelly and other officers of the U.S. embassy.
The current embassy and consulate officers are working hard to finally bring resolution to the twenty one years old case of Boris Weisfeiler disappearance in Chile.
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| The U.S. embassy; a press conference, March 31, 2006. (courtesy of the U.S. Embassy)
“The U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Craig Kelly, and Mrs. Olga Weisfeiler held a joint-press conference on March 31 to reinforce the investigation into the 1985 disappearance of U.S. citizen Boris Weisfeiler. The press conference was held at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile.”
(- The U.S. Embassy web site statement)
Viewed: 681 times.
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| U.S. Ambassador Craig Kelly & Olga Weisfeiler at the press conference; the U.S. embassy (courtesy of the U.S. Embassy)
The new communicational offensive was reinforced with a photo designed by the FBI. “Within the framework of a new search campaign, the diplomatic representative presented two images developed by the FBI, which show how Weisfeiler would be looking today, with the objective that the citizenship gives information on the scientist’s whereabouts.”
(- translation from El Mostrador, Carlos González Isla, March 31, 2006)
Viewed: 701 times.
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| U.S Ambassador Craig Kelly and Olga Weisfeiler
“Finding out what happened to Weisfeiler is a "high priority" for the American government, Kelly said.”
(- Eduardo Gallardo, AP; March 31, 2006)
Viewed: 670 times.
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| Olga Weisfeiler at the press conference; the U.S. Embassy, March 31, 2006.
Olga Weisfeiler, for the first time, expressed her frustration for the Army’s little cooperation either to search their own files for information on her brother’s arrest or force military officials as well as low ranking officers, who participated in the kidnapping, to give information on what they know on the final destiny of Boris Weisfeiler.
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U.S. Ambassador Craig Kelly & Olga Weisfeiler at the press conference; the U.S. embassy, March 31, 2006.
“Weisfeiler said she hoped new information would emerge from an investigation by Chilean authorities into Colonia Dignidad, a secretive German enclave where he [her brother] was reportedly last seen.”
(- Eduardo Gallardo; March 31, 2006)
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| "Policia de Investigaciones, Chile"
"The only clear thing is that the promise to clarify the destiny of a thousand of Chileans vanished by the dictatorship continues being a pending debt for the governments of the Concertación. So far, there is not yet justice... or truth." (- translation from La Nación, April 30, 2006)
Viewed: 750 times.
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| Servicio Médico Legal (SML)
"Lo único claro es que la promesa de aclarar el destino de un millar de chilenos desvanecidos por la dictadura sigue siendo una deuda pendiente para los gobiernos de la Concertación. Por ahora, aún no hay justicia... ni verdad." (- Javier Rebolledo y Luis Narváez, La Nación Domingo, April 30, 2006)
Viewed: 768 times.
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| “Bolsa de Comercio”
Old Stock Exchange
“A Chilean congressional report has said that Colonia Dignidad operated as a "state within a state" during General Pinochet's regime, thanks to Mr Schaefer's close ties to the country's ruling elite.”
(- BBC, April 11, 2006)
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| Map: South America.
Red arrow is pointed to the area of Villa Bavierra's (formerly Colonia Dignidad) approximate location in Chile, VIIth Region.
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Colonia Dignidad, VIIth region, Chile (IKONOS satellite image)
On April 10 “a Chilean judge has indicted 18 people linked to a former German colony in southern Chile over human rights abuses committed during military rule. Among them are two former commanders of the Chilean secret police, as well as Paul Schaefer, the colony's founder.”
(- BBC, April 11, 2006)
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| The official emblem of Colonia Dignidad - a nurse holding the hands of two children.
In a letter addressed to President Michelle Bachelet “former members of a German cult acknowledged human rights crimes that occurred in the colony before, during, and after the Pinochet era. The former colonists said they are ready to collaborate with the judicial system...”
(- The Santiago Times, April 20, 2006)
Viewed: 786 times.
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| Colonia Dignidad, VIIth region, Chile (IKONOS satellite image)
"There were no trials, they were tortured without pity and then killed without any witnesses. Their bodies were thrown into a common grave. And there was a deliberate and planned effort to hide all traces of the crime, to cover the tracks." (translation)
(- Alberto Luengo, Diario Siete, May 2006)
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| Guards at the Presidential Palace
In a letter addressed to Deputy Chief of Mission, Emi Lynn Yamauchi, General de Brigada Secretario General del Ejercito, Andres Avendaño Rojas, on behalf of the Commander in Chief of the Army, rejected meeting with the Weisfeiler family, however, reassured the U.S. Embassy and the family in “the Chilean Army’s full cooperation with the Courts of Justice in this or any other process which may be required.” The promissed by the Army a full cooperation is to be seen...
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| Palacio de la Moneda - Presidential Palace
During Weisfeiler's 10 days long stay in Santiago in March-April 2006, President Bachelet's office did not make its decision nor replied to the U.S. Embassy in regard of requested by the embassy meeting between President Bachelet and Weisfeiler family. Olga Weisfeiler, on a separate occasion, also requested such a meeting. Weisfeiler family was hoping to discuss with President Bachelet slowness of Boris Weisfeiler's disappearance case investigation as well as direct responsibility of the Chilean State in Boris' tragic fate.
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Pictures of the U.S. former Ambassadors James D. Theberge (1982-1985) and Harry G. Barnes Jr. (1985-1988)
In the 1980th U.S. Ambassadors James D. Theberge and Harry G. Barnes Jr. were unsuccessfully trying to investigate Weisfeiler’s disappearance. More than twenty years later, Olga, at last, getting positive that all of the hard work by the current embassy and consulate officers, including the FBI, under Ambassador Craig Kelly and Consul General Sean Murphy, judges, lawyers, and investigators as well as latest overwhelming congressional support will, to the end, leave no mystery behind of her brother's disappearance in Chile.
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| U.S. Ambassador to Chile Craig Kelly
“As part of the FBI’s new investigation into the disappearance of American citizen Boris Weisfeiler, U.S. Ambassador Craig Kelly met with Jorge Zepeda, the judge in charge of human rights investigations at Colonia Dignidad.” (The Santiago Times, April 24, 2006)
“En el marco de la nueva arremetida de la delegación del FBI en Chile, para dar con el paradero del ciudadano norteamericano Boris Weisfeiler, el embajador de Estados Unidos, Craig Kelly, se reunió ayer con el juez a cargo de la indagatoria, Jorge Zepeda.” (- La Nación, April 22, 2006)
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| Meeting with President Bachelet. Blair House, Washington D.C., June 9, 2006.
President of Chile Michelle Bachelet meets with relatives of disappeared U.S. citizen Boris Weisfeiler, Boris' sister Dr. Olga Weisfeiler and his niece, Anna Weisfeiler (left). President Bachelet informed the family that the Council for the Defense of the State, the Chilean government's legal watchdog body (CDE), joined the case of Boris Weisfeiler's disappearance as a plaintiff.
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| President of Chile Michelle Bachelet and Olga Weisfeiler. Blair House, Washington D.C., June 9, 2006.
While recognizing that there is a high degree of chaos in the case investigation and many questions are still without answer, President Bachelet reassured Weisfeiler family that she personally and her government "care about the case" and hope for its resolution. President Bachelet could not promise anything specific though hoping that the CDE intervention will play its positive role.
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