This is completely idiotic. The arrest of Pinochet has nothing to do with "global governance" or "third ways" or any other reformist schema that Burford would cover with Leninist-jargon wallpaper. You are dealing with a maverick judge in Spain, who seems to be some kind of combination of Ramsey Clark and Jim Garrison.
* * * * * * * * * October 19, 1998
Pinochet's Spanish Pursuer: Magistrate of Explosive Cases
By MARLISE SIMONS
PARIS -- A stubbornly independent judge who more than once has challenged the Spanish government, Baltasar Garzon was ridiculed when he first set out to pursue the most notorious right-wing generals in South America for human rights crimes committed in the 1970s and '80s, offenses for which they had already been granted amnesty at home.
Now, after Garzon succeeded in getting Scotland Yard to arrest Chile's former dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the Spanish magistrate has suddenly moved closer to creating an important legal precedent, one that could make the retirement of former dictators decidedly uncomfortable.
While this is certainly his most spectacular strike, the Madrid judge has long been at the center of controversy. Even before taking on the cases against former military rulers in Argentina as well as Chile, he had earned a high profile in Spain by investigating some of the country's most explosive issues, among them drug trafficking, Basque terrorism and government corruption.
The judge, despite his professorial look, lives a tense life and has said that he had to grow used to living with death threats. He moves around with bodyguards and works under tight security in the offices of the Madrid special criminal tribunal, known as the National Court.
His critics have often accused him of self-promotion because he takes on major cases and frequently appears on the front pages of newspapers. But Garzon, in a recent interview, responded that he is determined to expose crime in high places too easily overlooked and that in talking to the media he helps to prevent sensitive cases from being covered up.
His involvement with South America began in 1996 when he opened a criminal investigation after several Spanish legal associations asked him to look into the torture, disappearance and killing of Spanish citizens in Argentina during that country's military rule from 1976 to 1983.
Garzon, who works as an investigating magistrate rather than a judge on the bench, took more than five months to conclude that a Spanish court could have jurisdiction in the case. He argued that, under Spanish and international law, specifically under the Geneva Conventions, serious crimes involving human rights can be tried anywhere and are not subject to any time limit.
Garzon felt encouraged not only by support from international legal scholars and a U.N. committee, but also by the new efforts of Western powers to insure trials and punishment for those responsible for grave human rights violations, including genocide, in Rwanda and the Balkans.
Soon, he brought charges against 110 former and active military and police officers in Argentina and issued international arrest warrants against at least 11 senior Argentine military officers, including a former president, Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri. That meant countries that are part of the Interpol agreement would have to arrest the officers if they traveled outside Argentina.
Following the case against Argentina's security forces, another judge serving in the same court as Garzon opened an investigation into the torture and killing of Spaniards in Chile during the 17-year Pinochet dictatorship that ended in 1990. Garzon is now involved in both countries, and the cases have widened to embrace not just the killing of Spaniards but victims of other nationalities.
Since the case against Pinochet began at Madrid's National Court, the United States has agreed to provide the Spanish judges with documents related to human rights violations under the Pinochet regime. The Madrid court has charged Pinochet and other members of the Chilean high command with crimes against humanity, including genocide and terrorism, involving the deaths of more than 4,000 people.
Both extraterritorial investigations have drawn scorn from the civilian governments in Argentina and Chile, which have argued that the accused military officers have all benefited from amnesties and that no foreign judge can alter that.
Spain's conservative prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, has also told Buenos Aires and Santiago that he disapproves of the investigations, but that he cannot stop them. He and other government officials have complained that the judge's activities are complicating their diplomatic relations and risk affecting Madrid's current strategy of expanding its business investments in Argentina and Chile. But the judges have continued to press forward.
On Oct. 14, learning that Pinochet had entered Britain for medical treatment, Garzon asked British judicial authorities to hold the former dictator until Spanish investigators could interrogate him about a series of crimes, particularly those committed under a so-called Operation Condor in which Argentina and Chile cooperated in torturing and killing several hundred of their political opponents.
British authorities informed Garzon that Pinochet would be released from the hospital over the weekend and that they could not legally detain him. Garzon then issued an arrest warrant against Pinochet, specifically linking him to the case of a Chilean citizen, Edgardo Henriquez, who in April 1976 was kidnapped and tortured in Argentina and soon after handed over to the Chilean secret police, then under Pinochet's command. He has since been missing.
On Monday, Garzon will reportedly broaden the arrest warrant by adding the names of close to 80 additional victims, who were also kidnapped in Argentina and handed over to the Chilean secret police as part of Operation Condor. A lawyer familiar with the proceedings said Garzon will also formalize his request that Britain extradite Pinochet to Spain.
However, before it can be transmitted to British authorities, the extradition request must first be accepted by Spain's Ministry of Justice and then approved by Aznar and his cabinet. Aznar, who is known to favor turning down the request, has given no clear indication yet of the outcome.
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)