Committee of Concerned Scientists

An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

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CCS Requests Chile President’s Support For Permanent Human Rights Commission

May 11, 2015

Boris Weisfeiler in 1981

Boris Weisfeiler in 1981

For over 30 years, the Committee has supported the family of Dr. Boris Weisfeiler, Professor of Mathematics at Penn State University, in their search for the truth concerning the disappearance of Weisfeiler while hiking in Chile during the Pinochet regime. Finally, classified documents concerning Weisfeiler in the US Embassy in Chile and in the US State Department were declassified, resulting in the indictment in 2012 of four retired former police officers and four retired former Army officers.

CCS asked President Bachelet to introduce a bill to create a permanent human rights commission to re-examine whether Weisfeiler and others’ human rights were denied by the authorities.

Michelle Bachelet
President of Chile
Palacio de La Moneda
Santiago de Chile, Chile

April 30, 2015

Dear President Bachelet:

You may be aware of the continued search for the truth concerning the disappearance of Dr. Boris Weisfeiler, Professor of Mathematics at Penn State University in the United States, who disappeared while hiking in the Andes on January 5, 1985. Weisfeiler was a member of our organization and the Committee and his family have been concerned about this case for many years.

Finding the truth about this case, as is the case of many disappearances from the Pinochet era, has been a long and tortuous process. Weisfeiler came to Chile to hike through the Andes on a vacation. He was alone. Shortly thereafter he disappeared and was never heard from again. Initially, it was reported that he drowned while hiking, despite the fact that he was an experienced outdoorsman. The official investigation of his case was closed shortly thereafter. For many years his sister, Olga Weisfeiler, pursued the details of this case with the assistance of our Committee but without luck – requesting information both from your government and the U.S. Department of State. All information regarding this case by the US Embassy in Chile was considered classified.

In January 2000 a Chilean attorney was able to have the case reopened in Chilean courts. On June 30, 2000 the U.S. Department of State, in compliance with the Chile Declassification Project, released more than 450 official documents relating to the Weisfeiler case. However, two human rights commissions (Rettig, 1990, and Valech, 2010-11) failed to establish that Weisfeiler’s disappearance was a human rights case. The mandate of those investigations has now expired. In August 2012, however, a Chilean Judge, Jorge Zepeda, ordered the arrest of eight retired police and military officers in connection with the disappearance and kidnapping of Boris Weisfeiler. They are to be prosecuted for aggravated kidnapping and complicity in his disappearance.

With the recent indictments and the ability to review the information in the declassified government documents, it appears that the Weisfeiler case deserves a fair and complete review for classification as a human rights violation. We are asking you at this time to speedily introduce a bill allowing for the establishment of a permanent Human Rights Commission that could open for review cases that need to be submitted and re-reviewed, such as, and in particular, the Weisfeiler case. The families of these victims deserve the peace of mind that comes from a reasonable, complete and fair explanation of what happened to their loved ones and the honor of knowing that it was a violation of their Human Rights, with the responsibility being that of the State under the Pinochet regime.

Sincerely,

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Copies to:

Olga Weisfeiler

Related articles
  • Chilean Court Charges Ex-Officers in Weisfeiler Arrest (concernedscientists.org)
  • Classified US Documents Could Set the Record Straight on Chile’s Military Coup (news.vice.com)

Filed Under: CCS Cases, Good News Tagged With: Andes, Augusto Pinochet, Boris Weisfeiler, Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile, Scientists

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Paul H. Plotz, M.D., Washington, DC

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Astronomy – Arno Penzias, New Enterprises Associates*

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser, Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy, University of Pittsburg

David Gross, (2004 Nobel Prize in Physics), Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara*

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Louis Nirenberg, New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Honorary Board Members

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, (1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine), New England Biolabs*

Myriam Sarachick, City College of New York

Harold Scheraga, Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin*

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

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