Santiago, Chile
Chile’s Supreme Court ruled this week that former dictator Augusto Pinochet is mentally unfit to stand trial, effectively ending efforts to prosecute him for abuses during his 17-year rule. The retired general suffers from dementia, an irreversible mental illness, as well as diabetes and arthritis. Prosecutors accused Pinochet, 86, of ordering a traveling hit squad known as the “Caravan of Death” to kill dozens of political prisoners after he seized power in 1973. Across the border in Peru, another former strongman wasn’t so fortunate. Vladimiro Montesinos was convicted of illegally seizing control of Peru’s spy agency under former president Alberto Fujimori, who fled into exile in November 2000. Montesinos, 57, was sentenced to nine years, and faces 70 more charges.
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