PLEASE NOTE: We will be holding this ceremony at our offices at 1301 Connecticut Ave. NW, 6th floor (Connecticut and N). Our offices are one block south of the southern entrance of the Dupont stop on the red line.

42nd Anniversary

LETELIER-MOFFITT MEMORIAL PROGRAM

Program at 1301 Connecticut Ave. NW, 6th floor, Washington, DC

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Please join us to remember Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who were assassinated on this site in 1976 by agents of the Pinochet dictatorship.

Featuring:

• Ali Beydoun, former director of the UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic at the Washington College of Law. The clinic won a $7.2 million judgment against Michael Townley, one of the assassins in the Letelier-Moffit case, for his role in aiding and abetting the torture and assassination of Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria. Ali will speak about continuing efforts to hold Townley accountable for his crimes.
• Cristian Letelier, son of Orlando Letelier
• Music: Patricio Zamorano will perform a tribute to Victor Jara. Nine former Chilean soldiers were convicted in July 2018 for the torture and murder of the famous singer in the days following the 1973 coup.
• Emcee: John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies director
• Violeta Curiel, IPS Development Associate and coordinator of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards program.

Others to come

Background

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 was a 25-year-old IPS development associate. For more than three decades, the pursuit of justice for their murders 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 around the world.

This program will take place in our offices due to inclement weather.