Emcee: John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies

Speakers:

Reverend Sheila McCurdy, United Methodist Church

Carlos Portales, former Chilean Ambassador to Geneva and director, Program on International Organizations, Law and Diplomacy, Washington College of Law, American University

Julia Sweig, Senior Fellow and Director for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Mark Schneider, Senior Vice President, International Crisis Group

His Excellency Arturo Fermandois Vöhringer, Ambassador of Chile to the United States

Poetry: Joseph Ross, Founder and Director, Carroll High School Writing Center

Music: Tierra Morena

Background

Until September 11, 2001, the car bombing on Massachusetts Avenue was the most infamous act of international terrorism ever to take place in our nation’s capital. On September 21, 1976 agents of the Augusto Pinochet regime planted a car bomb at this location which brutally took the lives but not the memory of two IPS colleagues, who fought for equality and justice through reason, not violence.

Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt were colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies, where Letelier had become one of the most outspoken critics of Pinochet. Moffitt was a 25-year-old 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 the human rights community, friends, family, colleagues, and supporters gather in remembrance of these tragic assassinations.

This program will take place outdoors at the site of the assassination and end with a laying of flowers on the Letelier-Moffitt memorial across the street from Sheridan Circle. Please bring flowers.

For more information call (202) 787-5277 or email sena@ips-dc.org