Speaking in Santiago, our President Kerry Kennedy returned to the site of Chile’s 1988 plebiscite to honor the courage of citizens who said “No” to dictatorship and to reflect on how that moment shaped her lifelong commitment to human rights. She traced the Kennedy family’s historic ties to Chile and recalled lessons about the cost of silence and the power of dissent.  

Kerry spoke about how Chile’s past connects to today’s global crises, from climate change and nuclear risk to economic inequality, disinformation, weaponized AI, and the erosion of democracy. Kerry warned of a worldwide surge in authoritarianism and said that true security must be grounded in law, accountability, and human dignity, not repression.