British Labour Government

Pinochet was arrested in London on October 17, 1998. The former dictator of Chile between 1973 and 1990 was accused of having overthrown one of the oldest American democracies and have murdered and tortured thousands. His 18 months of arrest in England caused a series of changes in world politics before human rights. After the end of the cold war in 1991 West needed to shed its image of having flirted with anti-Communist tyrants to legitimize his new strategy of global political and economic liberalization. His case served as the example for subsequent extradition of other dictators like Milosevic (Serbia), Taylor (Sierra Leone) and Fujimori (Peru). However, Pinochet not stayed imprisoned in United Kingdom or was extradited to Spain where begged him. Bush and Thatcher pressed for his release and the British Labour Government agreed to do so. The paradox is that London or Washington who sooner or later have invaded countries to arrest dictators (from Iraq to Panama), freed which had in House. Even today USA is hard against regimes that, although they were elected, they accuse of dictatorial (such as Venezuela) but is silent before autocracies that supply you oil (such as the Arabs, the Gulf of banana or of Turkmenistan).