The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.39           November 2, 1998 
 
 
British Cops Arrest Former Dictator Of Chile  

BY TONY HUNT
LONDON - In a flagrant abuse of the national sovereignty of Chile, British police arrested the country's former military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, October 17 on a warrant issued by two Spanish judges. Pinochet, 82, was detained at a private hospital in London where he was being treated. He is due to be taken to court to face extradition proceedings to Spain in about 10 days. The warrant is based on atrocities committed by Pinochet's government between 1973 and 1983, including the murders of Spanish and British citizens.

The arrest warrant was issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, a social democrat who is notorious for prosecuting Basque independence fighters. The proceedings against Pinochet were initiated by the Left Unity, a parliamentary group led by the Spanish Communist Party, in Madrid and the Commission of the Disappeared in Chile.

Pinochet took power in Chile in 1973 in a military coup backed by U.S. imperialism, which overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. Some 400 U.S. advisers reportedly assisted Pinochet in establishing his brutal regime. More than 3,000 people were murdered or "disappeared" and thousands more were tortured.

Pinochet was also in cahoots with British imperialism, providing camps for British special forces during the 1982 Malvinas War against Argentina. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, in power during that war, was among his supporters.

The arrest has evoked contrasting responses from the big business press. The liberal Observer praised the actions of the Labour government, saying it was a demonstration of its "ethical foreign policy." An editorial in the right-wing Daily Telegraph defended the 1973 coup and condemned the arrests because Pinochet was "an unstinting ally of this country." The London Times editors pointed out that the arrest set a precedent by which other current or former heads of sovereign governments could be arrested when visiting Britain.

Right-wing Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa told the BBC he hoped it would be followed by the arrest of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and President Fidel Castro of the revolutionary government of Cuba.

Speaking in Portugal, Fidel Castro said the "arrest was international meddling." Rallies have taken place in both London, Madrid, and elsewhere by human rights groups and radical and liberal activists supporting the arrest. Right- wingers in Chile have rallied to oppose it.

The Communist League in the United Kingdom issued a statement condemning the arrest and extradition proceedings. "Only the Chilean people have the right to bring this butcher to justice, not the British or Spanish imperialists, whose system has been responsible for the greatest atrocities and crimes in human history," it read.

 
 
 
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