William Robert Beausire (also known as Guillermo Roberto Beausire Alonso - his official name in Chile) was a British stockbroker with dual British and Chilean nationality, abducted while in transit in Buenos Aires airport in November 1974, then taken to a torture centre in Chile and never seen since. He is among the list of people deemed disappeared

Forced disappearance

In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...

 under the Pinochet regime.

Biography

William Beausire was a British businessman who had a British father and a Chilean mother, and had dual nationality. He and his sisters grew up in Chile. He was abducted in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 Ezeiza

Ministro Pistarini International Airport

Ministro Pistarini International Airport , more commonly known as Ezeiza International Airport owing to its location within the Ezeiza Partido in the Greater Buenos Aires, is an international airport located south-southwest of Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina...

 airport by plain clothed agents of the Argentine security forces on November 2, 1974, as he was on his way to France. From there he was taken to Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 to the offices of DINA, the Chilean secret police, in calle Jose Domingo Cañas, Santiago

Santiago, Chile

Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

, where his mother and sister Diana were being interrogated, and subsequently to the Villa Grimaldi

Villa Grimaldi

Villa Grimaldi was a complex of buildings used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners by DINA, the Chilean secret police, during the government of Augusto Pinochet. The complex was located in Peñalolén, in the outskirts of Santiago, and was in operation from mid-1974 to mid-1978...

 torture centre.

It is thought Beausire was a target for DINA because his sister Mary-Anne did oppose the regime, and was living with Andrés Pascal Allende

Andrés Pascal Allende

Andrés Pascal Allende is a Chilean Marxist revolutionary and nephew of former President Salvador Allende. He is of Basque and Belgian descent.He was born in Santiago, the son of Gastón Pascal Lyon and of Laura Allende Gossens...

, a revolutionary and leading member of the MIR

Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)

Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean political party and former left-wing guerrilla organization founded on October 12, 1965...

, now in the underground opposition to the military regime and nephew of deposed Popular Unity Chilean president Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....

. It is thought Beausire was targeted in an attempt to find out where Mary-Anne and Andres Pascal were.

Witnesses say that Beausire was given electric shocks, had sticks forced into his rectum and was hung in the air. On May 17, 1975 he was taken to another DINA centre in Calle Irán, Santiago. The last anyone heard of William Beausire was on July 2 of that year, when witnesses reported seeing DINA officers taking him from a building in Iran Street, Santiago, since when he was never seen again. His mother, Ines Beausire, and his sister Diana started a fruitless search for him. In June 1976 the UK Government referred the case to the United Nations. Beausire was 26 years old when he was arrested. His mother died in 1995.

In 1981 his case was highlighted when featured in the BBC TV "Prisoners of Conscience" series, with Beausire being played by Richard Griffiths.