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.
Please join us this year as we pay tribute to Orlando’s widow and renowned human rights leader Isabel Letelier and reflect on the ongoing struggle for human rights in the United States, Chile, and around the world.
Featuring:
- His Excellency Juan Gabriel Valdés, Ambassador of Chile to the United States and a former IPS colleague of Orlando Letelier
- Letelier family members
- Katherine Hite, Vassar College Professor of Political Science and former IPS staff member
- Liam Crisan, Latin America Working Group
Music: Chilean singer-songwriter Patricio Zamorano and musician Sara Zhu
Emcees: Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh, 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 48th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards, Tuesday, October 10.
