16 Apr 1989 Jahr - Bell visits Chile, meets Pinochet

Beschreibung:

In his interview, Bell describes visiting Chile with colleague Bertie Way in the wake of the referendum with a letter for Pinochet from Thatcher. The anecdote as told in his interview is below:

"I went to see him... and the curfew had just started and I walked down the square and there was these great big steps and Nazi type looking soldiers standing outside and I walked up and I walked up these steps holding my letter in my hand and they sort of looked at me with a sort of "who are you?" and they said "what can I do for you?" you know in Spanish and I said, "I'd like to see General Pinochet" and they said "you can't see General Pinochet" and they banged on the door and the door opened and the steward came out and said "yes" and I said, "I've brought a letter from Mrs. Thatcher...I'm from London and I want to see General Pinochet." "Just a moment," he said so I wait. I waited and then he went in and came out and it turned out Pinochet's daughter spoke perfect English and she said "what can I do for you?" and I said "I've got this letter for General Pinochet" I've this letter in Margaret's handwriting, addressed to him and she said "come and see my father." So I was shown in and we go through the banquet hall and the hall where they...and this library where the man in uniform sat in the corner with General Pinochet. So I said hello to him and there was an [?] from Thatcher. And he said "fine, you'll have to get some help to go back, did you come from the hotel?" I said "yes" and he said "you'll have to get someone to come with you otherwise the curfew, they'll arrest you. And I said oh and so he said "can you give me the letter?" And then you can go. And I said thank you. And he said I'll give you a guard to take. So I stood there, and she opened it and read it to him. With the English and translated it into Spanish. And it basically said please would you assist Lord Bennet and Mr Bell in anyway you can. Said he's a personal emissary of mine, please help him. It was very nice. And I went and a uniformed officer came and stood with a big gun in his hand and stood at attention and marched out, goose stepping across, we got out of the palace and point towards the hotel and he goose stepped to the hotel and I got to the hotel and there were all the guards kept coming out and pointing guns at me. I mean they were very sort of hostile. They were going to call a policeman, point a gun at me. And then he waved me through and I went home."

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