In a crowded restaurant a bottle of wine arrives at our table with a note: 'Por tratar de juzgar a Pinochet y hacer justicia en nuestro país' - 'For your efforts to bring Pinochet to trial and to do justice in our country.' Wherever we go in Chile with him, people recognise Juan Guzmán as the judge who has indicted a series of high-ranking officers for the torture, murder and aggravated kidnapping of more than a hundred victims of the military terror of the 1970s and 1980s. It is still possible that General Pinochet will be indicted with them. They come up, shake Guzmán's hand and say awkward words of thanks.

LRB 24 June 2004 | PDF Download