2005 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards honors Judge Juan Guzman
Chilean Prosecutor of Augusto Pinochet
Wednesday, October 19th National Press Club
5:30pm Cocktails; 7:00pm Ceremony

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Judge Guzman worked tirelessly to strip the right to immunity from General Augusto Pinochet

For 29 years, the Institute for Policy Studies has pursued justice for two colleagues assassinated in downtown Washington, D.C. in 1976 by agents of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. This year, the Institute will honor a man who made a historic breakthrough in this struggle by indicting Pinochet in his home country. Chilean Judge Juan Guzman will receive the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award (named after IPS colleagues Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt) at a ceremony at the National Press Club on October 19 at 7 pm. The award will be presented by Joyce Horman, whose pursuit of the truth about her husband’s execution in Chile was depicted in the film “Missing.”

About Judge Guzman

When Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet left detention in Britain and returned to Chile in March 2000, many thought he would remain forever beyond the reach of justice. Judge Juan Guzman had other plans. Within 72 hours, Guzman moved to strip Pinochet’s immunity from prosecution, initiating a series of prosecutions that continue today. Twice—in 2000 and again in 2004—Guzman succeeded in indicting Pinochet. Though in both cases superior courts declared Pinochet mentally unfit for trial, Judge Guzman’s work has given new hope to Pinochet’s victims, helped strengthen the rule of law in Chile, and inspired victims of tyranny the world over to seek justice against human rights violators who once seemed immune to judicial accountability. Guzman retired from the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2005, and was recently appointed dean of the law school at Central University in Santiago. His memoir, En el borde del mundo: Memorias del juez que procesó a Pinochet, is now a best seller in Chile.

Guzman’s legal work also resonates well beyond Chile and gives hope to victims of tyranny the world over that their oppressors can be held accountable. On the same evening, the 2005 Letelier-Moffitt Domestic Award goes to Barrios Unidos for their dedication to anti-gang violence in our cities.

About the Letelier-Moffitt Awards

On September 21, 1976 agents of Pinochet detonated a car bomb at Washington’s Sheridan Circle that killed former Chilean diplomat and IPS Fellow Orlando Letelier and IPS development associate Ronni Karpen Moffitt. Letelier was a former official in the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende and a prominent critic of the Pinochet regime, which toppled Allende’s elected government in a 1973 coup. Letelier and Moffitt were on their way to work at the Institute for Policy Studies. Each year since their assassination, IPS has honored their memory by celebrating heroes of the human rights movement in the United States and around the world.

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For more information, on the Letelier-Moffitt event, please call Institute for Policy Studies, (202) 234-9382.