Abstract

The so-called "Honecker case" is an episode little studied in the internationalist historiography of Chile. It opened a complex diplomatic scenario between Chile, Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), later Russia. The problem involved three countries in an unprecedented situation of International Law, and provoked a long legal and diplomatic negotiation, not free from tensions, within an international system in transformation. The article addresses the tensions that arose in the first phase of this problem, using unpublished chilean diplomatic sources, Patricio Aylwin presidential archive, parliamentary sessions, interviews, and the Chilean and German press of the period.