Augusto Pinochet's health

We were expecting a senile and impotent old man returning discreetly and even shamefully to his country. The former dictator was declared not fit to stand trial by British doctors who examined him. He seemed condemned to his wheelchair. Now, abandoning it, smiling and almost mocking, Augusto Pinochet appeared remarkably alert, Friday, March 3, when he gave accolades to dignitaries to the Chilean army that had come to welcome him at the Santiago airport.

The masquerade and military ceremony are shocking. The commanders in chief of the state deliberately disobeyed the government, which had demanded a more discreet welcome. It is a humiliation for the outgoing democratic-Christian president, Eduardo Frei, and for his socialist successor, Richard Lagos.

In light of this strange return, we can only regret the decision of the British Home Secretary Jack Straw, who did not allow the extradition of Augusto Pinochet to Spain for a trial in just and due form.

-- Le Monde, Paris