Augusto Pinochet

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Personal

Passions

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Chilean dictator who took Allende out of Chile's presidency and installed himself for many years, one of the most cruel, ruthless, right-wing rulers this side of the Equator. For 17 years he maintained a fiercely repressive rule before leaving power. From the time he took over in 1973 in a U.S. backed military coup, the man in the ominous dark glasses devised a series of legal barriers to protect himself from any unpleasant consequences. His armed forces killed or "disappeared" more than 3,000 people, but in 1978, Pinochet pushed through an amnesty law that shielded him and his henchmen from prosecution. His own 1980 Constitution gave him another title: senator for life. In October 1998 he landed in London, his favorite foreign country, where he shopped, visited and had tea with his old friend, former prime minister Margaret with Thatcher. But then his back flared up and he was forced to have emergency surgery on October 9. On October 16, Scotland Yard detectives presented the heavily sedated man with a Spanish arrest warrant. Since then, he has been heavily guarded, the first head of state who has ever been arrested outside of his own country. A Spanish judge had sent an order for his extradition in order that Pinochet be judged in Spain for ordering the execution of many Spanish citizens who were living in Chile during his terrifying reign. Chile is divided; many demonstrators picketed in front of the London clinic, chanting leftist "words of order" such as "the people, united, shall never be defeated." Thatcher pronounced herself against the extradition and Pinochet himself claimed that, as a perpetual senator, he has immunity and that a prison sentence is illegal. Embroiled in legal entanglements, he found that there are fewer and fewer places to hide in an international village. On October 28, the High Court in London ruled that Pinochet is immune from prosecution in British courts and ordered the British government to pay the former Chilean dictator's legal costs of $560,000. They threw out the two Spanish arrest warrants. The ruling was based on the principle "that one sovereign state will not impugn another in relation to its sovereign acts." On 25 November 1998, British Justice denied Pinochet his diplomatic immunity, so the deporting process to Spain may proceed. This is an important first event that paves the way for a future in which no dictator or war criminal may hide in exile. His extradition hearing began on 4 June 1999. In October 1999 a ruling passed that he could be extradited on torture charges. On 1 December 2000, news reports announced that Pinochet was under house arrest in Chile for war crimes. The dictator died at age 91 on 10 December 2006 in Santiago, Chile. His death came at 2:15 PM according to his physician as quoted in the New York Times, time confirmed on death certificate. Pinochet had been hospitalized a week prior after he suffered a heart attack and had undergone an angioplasty. Link to Wikipedia biography