Word: chiles
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That imaginary scene does seem farfetched, but it is the kind of thing officials in Washington and other capitals are starting to take seriously. It is very close to what happened to another ex-President, Chile's General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, in a London hospital in October. Pinochet may end up being shipped off to Spain to stand trial on charges of torture and mass murder. The families of his thousands of victims are rightly cheering, and human-rights activists are delighted that the world may no longer be safe for retired tyrants. But officials in perfectly upstanding governments note...
...Between Vengeance and Forgiveness by listing the reasons why it had to be written and why it should be read: "The Holocaust and Final Solution, the Rape of Nanking, the...killings of Cambodians, the genocide of Armenians...the killings of the Hutus, the Gulag, the tortures of 'leftists' in Chile, the students in Argentina, the victims of apartheid." She makes a grim list of the genocides, violence, mass tortures and collective horror, nothing how our century is characterized by these and other atrocities and how it may be remembered more for its mass graves than for anything else...
...Chile's sky hasn't fallen in. And despite Madeleine Albright's fear that General Augusto Pinochet's extradition would destabilize the fledgling democracy, Chileans actually appear to be growing tired of the saga. "The military and a small number of right-wing protesters vented their frustration in tough talk following Britain's decision," says TIME reporter Elizabeth Love. "But there's no threat to democracy." After all, there would be little logic in the military again seizing power when the civilian government has already exhausted all diplomatic means of winning Pinochet's release...
...With Spain formalizing its indictment against Pinochet Thursday, the general looks set for a lengthy sojourn in Britain. And that further reduces the risk of turmoil in Chile. "The longer this drags on, the more it becomes simply part of the political background as life goes on," says Love. "People are getting sick of the issue -- a majority of Chileans believe Pinochet is guilty, but they are also telling pollsters that the issue doesn't affect them." The one thing that could disrupt the onset of calm, of course, would be the general's return home. That would force Chileans...
...Concerns of those counseling caution range from avoiding a precedent of cross-border political extradition to fear of destabilizing Chile. Then there's the case of the 1976 car bomb in Washington, D.C., that killed Chilean exile Orlando Letelier and American citizen Roni Moffit. "There's already strong circumstantial evidence that Pinochet ordered that attack, and there may be even more precise information in the classified documents," says Zagorin. "The U.S. government hasn't pursued Pinochet's involvement as aggressively as they might have." So, even if the former dictator is sent home by Britain next week...