Light Among Shadows A Celebration of Orlando Letelier, Ronni Karpen Moffitt and Heroes of the Human Rights Movement

When Institute for Policy Studies employees Ronni Karpen Moffitt and Orlando Letelier were killed in Washington DC in September 1976 by agents of Augusto Pinochet, their families and colleagues found themselves grappling not only with an intense personal tragedy, but also with a brazen political crime.

"Light Among Shadows: A Celebration of Orlando Letelier, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, and Heroes of the Human Rights Movement" begins with poetry, prose, and photos, both old and new, about Ronni and Orlando, and how - in life and death - they affected those around them. The words of Ariel Dorfman, Saul Landau, E. Ethelbert Miller, members of the Letelier and Karpen families, and others carry the reader through the intense grief and outrage that followed the murders to the triumphant day, more than two decades later, that Pinochet was arrested in London for crimes against humanity committed during his reign of terror in Chile.

The book also looks at fifty-five groups and individuals who have been awarded the Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Award, which was initiated in 1978 by the Institute for Policy Studies to recognize heroes of the human rights movement and honor the memory of Ronni and Orlando. Through their words and summaries of their work, readers gain perspectives on the lessons learned over the past quarter-century; the most important developments in the field; and the challenges that lay ahead.

By turns both heartbreaking and inspirational, "Light Among Shadows" documents a journey from the darkness of tyranny to the dawning of a new era for champions of human rights the world over.

Contents

Introduction by John Cavanagh

The Crime

• Two Deaths in the Morning by Saul Landau

Ronni Karpen Moffitt

• Ronni was our first born by Murray and Hilda Karpen
• Comments from the 1986 Sheridan Circle Ceremony by Michael Karpen
• Ronni by Saul Landau
• The Flag by Pablo Neruda

Orlando Letelier

• Cloak of Stars by Francisco Letelier
• Eulogy for Orlando Letelier by Peter Weiss
• Compañero in September by Isabel Morel Letelier

The Case

• Letelier-Moffitt Case Timeline (PDF)
• 25 Years of Pursuing Pinochet by Stacie Jonas

Chile

• day of protest/night of peace by E. Ethelbert Miller
• Now the World Will Know the Truth by Francisco Letelier
• Autobiography by Juan Pablo Letelier

The Legacy

• 1993 Keynote Speech by Ariel Dorfman
• The Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Award by Sarah Anderson
• Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards Winners Quotes and Profiles
• Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards Winners Directory
• Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards Selection Committee Members 1984-2000

Go Tell Them by Francisco Letelier