Chris, you are utterly confused. The Spanish Foreign Minister wants Pinochet to be returned to Chile for the very reason that he wants to avoid a serious trial such as the kind that would take place in Spain. The US government is lining up with Blair and the Chilean government on this question. In other words, what you find hopeful the Chilean radical movement regards as a sell-out of the quest for justice. That you can not see this even after I posted relevant articles just a couple of days ago shows that your reformist appetites have clouded your ability to see reality, as weak as it was to begin with. What's interesting is that the Chilean Socialist Party has broken ranks with the Foreign Minister, who is a party member. I suspect that the SP is forced to do this to save face rather than out of any consideration of principle. After all, they have been one of the main actors in putting the "national tragedy" of the Pinochet years into the dustbin of history, as if it were a typhoon or earthquake rather than a conscious counter-revolutionary attack on the people they allegedly represent.
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Financial Times (London)
December 2, 1998, Wednesday LONDON EDITION 1
Chilean trial for Pinochet 'not possible'
White in Madrid
Madrid
Politicians from the Socialist party of Jose Miguel Insulza, the Chilean foreign minister, have written to Jack Straw, UK home secretary, insisting that General Augusto Pinochet could not be brought to justice in Chile.
Listing a series of judicial and political obstacles which would, they say, have to be removed in order to resolve the issue, the politicians have taken an opposite line to that of Mr Insulza, who is in Europe trying to prevent the former dictator's extradition from the UK to Spain on charges of genocide, terrorism and torture.
The Socialists have urged a limit to the scope of the military courts (which routinely take over jurisdiction in a case in which the military are involved), and repeal of an amnesty which pardons all those involved in political crimes committed between 1973 and 1980.
Mr Straw has until December 11 to decide whether to authorise extradition proceedings. Gen Pinochet was arrested on October 16.
Mr Insulza said yesterday his talks in London and Madrid had produced "some positive signs" about a solution to the case. But he refused to say what these were, and made clear he had received "no commitment from anybody".
After meeting his Spanish counterpart, Abel Matutes, he raised the prospect of a trial in Chile if Gen Pinochet's immunity as a member of the Senate was lifted. But he said the Chilean government was under no obligation to promise a trial.
Gen Pinochet was last night reported to have left the UK hospital he stayed in while fighting extradition to Spain, for a house in south London. London's Grovelands Priory hospital said it had asked him to leave because he had recovered from back surgery.
Michael Caplan, Gen Pinochet's lawyer, said he was "distressed" about the hospital's decision to say publicly it wanted him to leave: "The senator has always been anxious to move from the hospital as soon as possible."
An opinion poll in yesterday's London Evening Standard found that 51 per cent of those questioned wanted Gen Pinochet to be extradited to Spain. Only 32 per cent want him to be allowed to return to Chile.
Madeleine Albright, US secretary of state, said this week that consideration should be given to Chile's fledgling democracy. Despite this, the UK government insisted Mrs Albright had not asked for Gen Pinochet to be allowed to return to Chile during a telephone conversation with Robin Cook, UK foreign secretary, on November 21.
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