Orlando Letelier exemplified precisely the qualities - reason, concern for the common man, and civility - which the junta is trying to suppress in his native land
'The coup in Chile would somehow be extraordinarily important in my life' wrote Michael Moffit days after the assassination of his wife Ronni and his friend Orlando.
Transcript of Orlando Letelier's Speech at the Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden on September 10, 1976. The same day that he was deprived of his Chilean nationality by decree.
Deeply involved in the preparation of the 1975 military coup in Chile, the so-called Chicago Boys convinced the Junta generals that they were prepared to supplement the brutality, which the military possessed, with the intellectual assets it lacked. Here Orlando Letelier, TNI's second director, reflects on the impact their economic ideology had on Chile and by default shares pertinent observations on the legacy that persists today.
Hunger is not a scourge but a scandal. This is the premise of Susan George's classic study of world hunger. Re-released in 2009 as free online download.
In 1961 the coca leaf was listed on Schedule I of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs together with cocaine and heroin. The inclusion of coca has caused much harm to the Andean region and a historical correction is long overdue, for the sake of further conflict prevention and out of respect for the Andean culture. The rationale for including the coca leaf in the 1961 Single Convention is mainly rooted in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Coca Leaf from May 1950 The report was requested of the United Nations by the permanent representative of Peru that was prepared by a commission that visited Bolivia and Peru briefly in 1949.
