March 2, 2000 - Augusto Pinochet - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Britain allows former Chilean dictator Pinochet to go home without trial for human rights abuses. In June 1973, Chilean President Salvador Allende appointed General Augusto Pinochet as the country’s commander-in-chief. It was a fateful decision. Just months later, Pinochet seized control of the democratically elected government and Allende was murdered in a military coup. In Pinochet’s subsequent bid to rid the country of left-leaning dissidents, he had thousands of Chileans tortured and murdered until his reign ended in 1990. But for years after, Pinochet carried on as commander-in-chief and created a position for himself of senator-for-life. Although many Chileans, especially those who lost loved ones to his murderous regime, wanted justice, the aging former dictator was granted immunity. His luck changed during a trip to London, England in 1998. After a request by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, Britain chose to place Pinochet under house arrest in London. For 16 months, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and France all clamored to have the former dictator extradited to stand trial for human rights abuses. But on March 2, 2000 – citing medical evidence that the 84-year-old’s failing health would not allow him to stand trial – Britain’s Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that Pinochet was being released. Later that day, the aging senator flew home on a Chilean Air Force jet. Unfortunately for Pinochet, his health recovered sufficiently that on January 4, 2005, Chile’s Supreme Court ruled him able to stand trial for human rights crimes. Pinochet died on December 10, 2006, just days after he was put under house arrest with more than 300 criminal charges pending against him.

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