Pinochet, indicted but free

He dies under indictment, never convicted, full military honors withheld but pension intact. The lateness is part of the design.

On 10 December 2006 — Human Rights Day — Augusto Pinochet dies in the Hospital Militar in Santiago at the age of 91. He has been under indictment in multiple cases, including for the Caravan of Death. He has been convicted in none. Britain extradited him in 2000; Chile's courts have spent six years working through immunity petitions and medical fitness rulings. The accounting always comes, but the lateness is part of the design rather than a flaw in it. Thirty-three years separate the helicopter tour from the indictment that names it. The men who flew on the helicopter are mostly dead. The men who voted Pinochet's plebiscite are mostly retired. The constituency that made the deal has been allowed to age out of consequence.