Seven Questions: Joan Garcés on Pinochet’s death

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images When former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died this week at 91, the people who had spent years pushing for a trial for crimes against humanity were denied their day in court. In this week’s Seven Questions, FP spoke with Joan Garcés, the Spanish lawyer who led the fight to extradite Pinochet and ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
605523_pinochet_coffin5.jpg
605523_pinochet_coffin5.jpg

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images



MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images

When former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died this week at 91, the people who had spent years pushing for a trial for crimes against humanity were denied their day in court. In this week’s Seven Questions, FP spoke with Joan Garcés, the Spanish lawyer who led the fight to extradite Pinochet and bring him to justice.

An excerpt:

FP: How do you respond to those people who say that Pinochet set Chile up to be a thriving economy and removed the country from communism—that he, in effect, contributed to the greatest good for the greatest amount of people?

JG: That is absolutely not true.

To find out why, read the rest.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.