ORLANDO LETELIER

 Orlando Letelier was an economist, ambassador, and Chilean minister during the administration of democratically elected President Salvador Allende. In 1973, during the coup by military dictator Augusto Pinochet, Letelier was arrested, imprisoned, and severely tortured for over a year until international pressure secured his release and exile. Letelier returned to Washington, DC, and served as a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies until his 1976 Pinochet-ordered assassination by car bomb on Embassy Row in Washington. In the car with him were his young colleague, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who also died in the bombing, and her husband, who was wounded. The artist was also commissioned many years earlier by the Institute for Policy Studies to create an Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award commemorating this horrible tragedy. In 2018, Johnston was commissioned by the Chilean Embassy to create a portrait of Letelier for the front entrance to the Embassy residence. The artist is beloved by the Letelier family and colleagues for the realistic likeness and the spirit of hope it embodies.

Orlando Letelier 2018 Bronze 1.5 Life-size Chilean Embassy, DC