It is indeed true that Pinochet has been arrested during his stay in hospital, following protests to Downing Street. The TV news is reporting that the has been arrested in connection with a Spanish investigation, and that Chile has lodged a formal protest. In his recently-negotiated capacity of 'Senator-for-life' the dictator was travelling under a dipomatic passport.
Will Britain go ahead? It seems extraordinary, but Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's recently floated 'humanitarian foreign policy' has already opened him up to demands that a more traditionally Tory incumbent would have faced down.
Is it a good thing that British and Spanish Imperialism should act as judge of the Dictator that they supported in his heyday? That's another question. Turning their own former allies like Noriega, (or Mladic and Saddam?) is one way that imperialism is seeking to promote itself as 'humanitarianism'. If Cook does go ahead, his ability to sell British imperialism as a good cause will be increased a hundred-fold. -- James Heartfield