Abstract

The detention of Augusto Pinochet in London had a series of legal and political consequences both in Chile and in the field of international criminal justice. The negative image of Pinochet in Europe (both political and aesthetic) had been built since the early days of the coup of 1973, an issue that is largely due to the thousands of Chileans who came exiled to the continent, as well as the brutal repression of the regime during its early years. Less known is the role played by these same communities in the development of the events surrounding the arrest of Pinochet in England in 1998; the redefinition of their identities as political diaspora, and the scope of this episode with the end of the Chilean political transition.