On September 21, 1976, agents of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile detonated a car bomb on Washington, DC’s Embassy Row, taking the lives but not the memory of Institute for Policy Studies colleagues Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt.
Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States, had become one of the most outspoken critics of the Pinochet regime. Moffitt, a 25-year-old American, was an IPS development associate. For nearly five decades, the pursuit of justice by Orlando and Ronni’s family members and other human rights advocates has been a symbol of hope for victims of tyranny everywhere.
Every year, human rights activists, friends, family, and colleagues gather in remembrance of Letelier and Moffitt and to reflect on the ongoing struggle for human rights in the United States and around the world.
This year’s program will feature:
- John Dinges, author of Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing after the Coup
- Cristian, Francisco, Juan Pablo, and José Letelier, sons of Orlando Letelier
- His Excellency Juan Gabriel Valdés, Ambassador of Chile to the United States and a former IPS colleague of Orlando Letelier
- Chilean singer-songwriter Patricio Zamorano and musician Sara Zhu
- Tope Folarin, Feleecia Guillen, and Aviah Krupnick, Institute for Policy Studies
This program will take place outdoors at Sheridan Circle, 23rd and Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC, the site of the 1976 assassination, and end with a laying of flowers on the Letelier-Moffitt monument across the street.
The Institute for Policy Studies also invites you to the 49th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards, Thursday, October 9.
