Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards

Nancy Sanchez Mendez has been defending human rights on the front lines of the Colombia's conflict, working for over a decade to help Putumayo, a neglected region of small farmers, to survive a U.S.-funded onslaught of military operations and herbicide fumigation. Nancy works with peasant and community groups to document the destruction of legal crops and alternative development projects, and health consequences of the campaigns for use in filing reparation complaints. Nancy has become a key source of information on how U.S. military aid dollars are spent in Colombia and the actions of the armed actors in southern Colombia to national and international organizations and media. Due to threats upon her life, Nancy left Colombia for France in 2001 but returned in 2003 to continue her work promoting human rights for the people of Putumayo.

Domestic Award: CASA de Maryland

CASA de Maryland was founded in 1985 by Central American refugees and North Americans to assist the thousands of refugees arriving in the D.C. area after fleeing wars and civil strife in Central America, though they now serve all immigrants, regardless of country of origin. CASA has earned the respect of the community, press, and local, state and national government for their social and educational services, leadership and community organizing training, and efforts to promote the full civic participation of immigrants and refugees. Though they are best know for direct service work, it was CASA's persistence in fighting for just immigration policies and fair treatment of immigrants and refugees by U.S. agencies that led the Letelier-Moffitt Selection Committee to honor them with the Domestic Award.

Special Recognition Award: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was selected as the first sitting head of state to receive the Letelier-Moffitt award because of his unparalleled triumph over adversity and his support of human rights, labor rights, and democratic values. Born into extreme poverty, Lula began factory work at age 14 and rose to top of the Brazilian labor movement. In the late 1970s, Lula broadened his struggle beyond labor rights to building a new political party to represent workers and other democratic forces. Under his leadership, the Workers' Party became a central force in ending the dictatorship by mobilizing millions to demonstrate for direct presidential elections. Lula has been a tireless and effective human rights advocate throughout his life -- as trade unionist, Party leader, member of Congress, and now President of the fifth-largest nation in the world.

2003 Letelier-Moffitt Selection Committee
Fred Azcarate, Jobs with Justice
Marie Dennis, Maryknoll Office on Justice and Peace
Karen Dolan, Institute for Policy Studies
Joe Eldridge, Chaplain, American University
Jill Gay
Bill Goodfellow, Center for International Policy
Martha Honey, Institute for Policy Studies
Adam Isacson, Center for International Policy
Peter Kornbluh, National Security Archive
Isabel Morel de Letelier
Jerome Scott, Project South
Barbara Shailor, AFL-CIO
Joel Solomon, AFL-CIO
Bill Spencer, Washington Office on Latin America

List of Honorees, 1978-2002

Light Among Shadows: A Celebration of Orlando Letelier, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, and Heroes of the Human Rights Movement, IPS 2001