16 oct 1998 año - 16 October 1998: Pinochet is arrested in London

Descripción:

In October 1998, while on a medical trip to London, Pinochet was arrested on a Spanish warrant requesting his extradition to face murder charges over the deaths of Spanish citizens during his rule. He was kept under house arrest at Wentworth Estate.

After Pinochet’s 1998 arrest, the Pinochet Foundation — founded in 1995 — began a massive fundraising drive to cover his legal and PR fees. According to the foundation’s website, Pinochet’s son Marco Antonio Pinochet Hiriart is a director.

Bell Pottinger was approached by Fernando Barros, a Chilean law professor who ran the Chilean Reconciliation Group lobbying for Pinochet’s release.

According to The Independent, the contract netted them £200,000: “A series of stories was placed in sympathetic newspapers, with photo opportunities at the Wentworth Estate, where he repeated his protestations of innocence and threats to die in Britain.”

The campaign stressed a message of “reconciliation, not retribution.”

Bell Pottinger reportedly set up a website for the campaign under the name “Reconcile Chile”.

New Internationalist wrote that Bell Pottinger sent postcards in the name of the Chilean Reconciliation Movement “to 5,000 British ‘opinion makers’, including the heads of the top 2,000 corporations, the members of the Houses of Commons and Lords, and the major news media. The buzzword of ‘reconciliation’ appears frequently, and several of the cards argue that Chileans are entitled to and have in their majority chosen reconciliation over ‘recrimination’ and revenge”.

The campaign sought to play up Pinochet’s ill-health, while claiming his military takeover in 1973 staved off a Communist dictatorship.

They also claimed Pinochet’s arrest was orchestrated by former Allende supporters and that his extradition would derail the reconciliation process back home in Chile.

Bell may have helped orchestrate a televised meeting between Pinochet and Margaret Thatcher.

The Chilean Reconciliation Group and the Pinochet Foundation flew hundreds of supporters to the UK, reported The Guardian.

Bell told The Observer at the time: “I have nothing to do with General Pinochet personally. I haven't seen him or spoken to him. We said we would be happy to help the reconciliation process in Chile.”

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