Word: chiles
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...Late last Friday night, while still recovering from surgery in London for a herniated disc, Pinochet, 82, was awakened by police and told that he was under arrest. A Spanish court, which has been trying Pinochet in absentia for allegedly ordering the execution of leftist Spaniards living in Chile in the 1970s, had issued an extradition warrant days earlier. Scotland Yard detectives said Pinochet, who is being held at the London Clinic, would eventually appear at an extradition hearing before a British magistrate. The move stunned Pinochet's boosters and critics alike, making it clear that the wounds caused...
That might be a premature verdict, however. As a Chilean Senator, Pinochet was traveling with a diplomatic passport. Though the government of Chile's President, Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, is hardly a Pinochet ally, it had little choice but to protest formally "what it considers a violation of the diplomatic immunity that Senator Pinochet enjoys," and demanded "an early end of this situation." But the British Foreign Office argued that such immunity would apply only if Pinochet had been on a diplomatic mission. Last weekend Pinochet's allies in Congress were scrambling to determine if his visit...
...Chile almost half the citizenry still revere Pinochet as a strong leader who saved the nation from economic and political collapse after his bloody U.S.-backed 1973 coup, in which leftist President Salvador Allende was killed. Since becoming a Senator, he has tried to project a more benign, grandfatherly image. But in countries like the U.S., where Pinochet assassins executed one of his exiled opponents in 1976, he's unlikely to get much sympathy. "The international community is sending a very positive signal for democracy and human rights," says Palma. Retired Chilean army General Luis Cortes Villa, head...
...SECRET ABOUT CHILE...
...release in London, the Spanish high court was considering a magistrate's extradition request. If Madrid drops the case, Britain will still face pressure to try Pinochet in London or turn him over to answer new charges filed in Switzerland and France. But the political fallout in Chile may persuade Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw to veto any further legal proceedings on humanitarian grounds. "If the Spanish drop their claim, you can bet Pinochet will be on the next plane out," says Hillenbrand. And probably a little leery of vacationing abroad for a while...