Join the Institute for Policy Studies at the Sheridan Circle Ceremony to Commemorate the 48th Anniversary of the Assassination of Orlando Letelier and his Institute for Policy Studies colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt
Washington, D.C. – On September 15, 2024, the Institute for Policy Studies will commemorate the 48th anniversary of the assassination of former Chilean ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier and his Institute for Policy Studies colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt.
Read more details about the event.
To RSVP as press, contact IPS Deputy Communications Director Olivia Alperstein at (202) 704-9011 or olivia@ips-dc.org.
On September 21, 1976, agents of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile detonated a car bomb on Washington, D.C.’s Embassy Row, taking the lives but not the memory of Institute for Policy Studies colleagues Letelier and Moffitt as they traveled to work. Until 9/11, this assassination was considered the most infamous act of international terrorism on U.S. soil.
Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the U.S. and former cabinet minister for Chilean president Salvador Allende prior to the 1973 Chilean coup, had become one of the most outspoken critics of the Augusto Pinochet regime. Moffitt, a 25-year-old American, was an IPS development associate.
For nearly five decades, the pursuit of justice by Letelier and Moffitt’s family members and other human rights advocates has been a symbol of hope for victims of tyranny everywhere. The Institute for Policy Studies has spent decades working to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice. Together with lawyers, researchers, journalists, and others, IPS worked tirelessly to hold agents of Pinochet and the dictator himself accountable for the assassination.
Join IPS on September 15 at 10:00 am – 11:00 am EDT in a powerful ceremony commemorating the assassination and in a tribute to Orlando Letelier’s widow and renowned human rights leader Isabel Letelier, in honor of her immense contributions not only to the struggle for justice for her husband but to 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
- Former Chilean Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, Jose Letelier, and Cristian Letelier, sons of Orlando and Isabel Letelier
- 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.
WHAT: Sheridan Circle Commemoration Ceremony on the 48th Anniversary of the Assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt
WHEN: September 15, 2024 at 10:00 am – 11:00 am EDT
WHERE: Sheridan Circle, Washington, D.C. (23rd and Massachusetts Ave. NW)
Read details and information about the event.
The event is open to the media. To RSVP as press, please contact IPS Deputy Communications Director Olivia Alperstein at (202) 704-9011 or olivia@ips-dc.org.
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