Brazil may be the next to join the countries which are on the extradition request queue. Remember that Brazil is in the normal route of the planes coming from Europe towards Chile, which land to refuel at Rio de Janeiro or Brasilia.
On Monday, 9th, a federal representative of the Workers Party filed a petition at the Federal General Attorney office requiring the detention of Pinochet once he enters the Brazilian airspace. The petition refers to the Brazilians who were killed in Chile (one of them, Regina Marcondes, is also mentioned in the Spanish request). The General Attorney must obtain a court order if he agrees with the petition.
However the incumbent one is a conservative man, he is sensitive to human rights issues. Furthermore, he is a close friend of president Cardoso, who lived as an exile in Chile. Remember that Cardoso immediately answered with a round "no" to the awkward initiative of Eduardo Frei, the president of Chile, when he asked several South American presidents, who had met in Brasília with king Juan Carlos of Spain, to join in a common declaration urging the immediate and unconditional freedom of the tyrant in the name of the Chilean sovereignty.
If there is a strong political will, everything can be dealt with in less than 12 hours.
So, the most likely escape routes seem now to be through North America or Northern Pole, provided that Pinochet can avoid being intercepted. This seems now to be imposssible, since several European states would probably try to intercept the plane once it has left the British skies, according to the Spanish-speaking transmission of CNN.
A Canadian friend wrote to me the following:
----->> "Well, thanks to the US media, I suspect that not many Americans have even heard of Orlando Letelier, let alone Augusto Pinochet. But a few thousand people can make a good demonstration, which the media will likely report, thus jogging somewhat North America's defective collective memory. Some people do not want North America's memory to be jogged. It would also be embarrassing if commentators recognized the plane "on air." One can expect that, behind the scenes, the Chileans will be strongly encouraged to find somewhere else for Pinochet's plane to land. Let's hope there will be nowhere else to land." What about Moon? ;>)
In solidarity, Roberto
1848 / 1998: Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch !
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans (....) Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes Le grand PARTI DES TRAVAILLEURS. (L' Internationale)
Saudações de Roberto
1848 / 1998: Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch !
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans (....) Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes Le grand PARTI DES TRAVAILLEURS. (L' Internationale)