'as a form of justice it has a certain black irony about it.'
sure does

General Pinochet was detained in London on 17 October 1998 following a request for his arrest and extradition by two Spanish judges investigating some of the 4,000-plus political murders believed to have been committed during his 1973-1990 rule.

Baroness Thatcher demanded his immediate release in a letter to the Times newspaper...........

General Pinochet snatched power from the socialist/democratic government of chile in 1973.

The Guardian, reporting at the time, outlined how the coup had been supported by outside interests


'Having failed to prevent his (Allende) election, and having failed to provoke a military coup to prevent his assuming office, American corporations, led by the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, and aided and abetted by the Nixon administration, set out to destroy Allende by economic means.
The "Anderson Papers" document the calculated steps taken to create a financial crisis. What happened in the end was very close to what was planned in 1970.
"A more realistic hope among those who want to block Allende," the ITT man reported in September of that year, "is that a swiftly deteriorating economy (bank runs, plant bankruptcies etc) will touch off a wave of violence resulting in a military coup." '
Another ITT report said: "Undercover efforts are being made to bring about the bankruptcy of one or two of the major savings and loans associations. This is expected to trigger a run on banks and the closure of some factories, resulting in more unemployment.
"Massive unemployment and unrest might produce enough violence to force the military to move."
The US government joined in these efforts, although cautiously, by cutting off economic assistance to Chile and using its dominant influence on the international development banks to block loans to Allende.
At the same time, it continued to pour in military assistance and maintain close links with the Chilean armed forces. In an off-the-record press briefing in September 1970,
Dr Henry Kissinger told reporters: "I don't think we should delude ourselves that an Allende takeover in Chile would not present massive problems for us, and for democratic forces and pro-US forces in Latin America, and indeed to the whole western hemisphere'

Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition. All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess," and were later banned outright. The dictatorship's violence was directed not only against dissidents, but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded that 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons, and approximately 30,000 tortured according to the later Valech Report, while several thousand were exiled. The latter were chased all over the world in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a US communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism
- Wikipedia



On October 17, 1998, while visiting the United Kingdom, Pinochet was arrested on a Spanish provisional warrant for the murder in Chile of Spanish citizens while he was president.
Five days later, Pinochet was served with a second provisional arrest warrant from the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, charging him with systematic torture, murder, illegal detention, and forced disappearances.

Just two weeks before his arrest, General Pinochet was entertained by the Thatchers at their Chester Square address in London.

While General Pinochet was staying in the rented mansion during his legal battle to avoid extradition to Spain Lady Thatcher thanked her old friend for being an ally during the 1982 Falklands War - and for "bringing democracy to Chile".

After having been placed under house arrest in Britain and initiating a judicial battle, he was eventually released in March 2000 on 'medical grounds' by the then Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial.

With friends like that.....!