The legal battle to bring Gen Augusto Pinochet to trial in a Chilean court faces a severe challenge this week as congress reconvenes and considers a constitutional reform package which would extend immunity from criminal prosecution to include former heads of state, including the retired dictator.
The new legislation makes no provisions for the revocation of such ex-presidential immunity, and could effectively end legal efforts to bring Gen Pinochet to trial for crimes committed during his rule, between 1973 and 1990.
Ironically, the immunity package was designed as a "present" to a former president, Mr Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), and was not prepared with the Pinochet issue in mind. But its effect on the case against the former dictator could be dramatic.
The approval of the immunity law can be blocked or overturned by presidential veto but the recently-inaugurated President Ricardo Lagos is unlikely to take such a bold step early in his presidency. Mr Lagos is tentatively searching for an accommodation with right-wing parties which won 48 per cent of votes in the presidential run-off last January.
The possibility of achieving consensus with opposition parties would permit Mr Lagos to remove nine designated senators, four of them selected by the armed forces, who hold sufficient votes to block long-desired changes to the 1980 constitution, drawn up by Gen Pinochet.
The first step toward removing Gen Pinochet's senatorial immunity is already in motion, as Santiago's Appeal Court considers 10,000 pages of evidence linking the former dictator to the "Caravan of Death", a massacre of political opponents who were taken from jails around the country in October 1973 and summarily executed.
President Lagos pledged to "create the conditions" by which Gen Pinochet could face trial, encouraging the State Prosecutor's office to join the prosecution team handling the "Caravan of Death" murders, the furthest advanced case to date. Gen Pinochet was named as the "intellectual author" of the caravan deaths, his signature authorising the macabre operation.
A simple majority among Santiago's 23 Appeal Court judges would be sufficient to strip Gen Pinochet of his senatorial immunity, but the general's lawyers could still appeal to the Supreme Court, which would have the final say on the issue.
Judge Juan Guzman, the prosecutor in charge of 73 cases against Gen Pinochet, awaits the outcome of the appeal process, which would then be followed by medical tests to determine whether the elderly tyrant is fit to stand trial.
If Gen Pinochet is stripped of his immunity, Chilean law permits any citizen over 70 to stand trial if charges are presented unless the person can demonstrate insanity, a ruling which can be reconsidered at any point in the subsequent trial.
The attitude of the armed forces to the judicial process could still play a significant role in the final outcome. Just minutes after Gen Pinochet landed in Chile earlier this month, Mr Fernando Barros, a close friend and lawyer of Gen Pinochet, spoke live on TV. "It is clear that any possible trial or removal of immunity is aimed at the armed forces," he said. "The political class should tread very carefully in this issue, as the transition hasn't finished yet."
AFP reports from Santiago:
As an FBI team arrived in the Chilean capital to gather evidence on the 1976 murder in Washington of an exiled Chilean politician, the US Justice Department was reported this week to be aiming for a US indictment of Gen Pinochet in connection with the killing.
The Chilean Interior Ministry confirmed that the FBI team had arrived in Santiago in time for court proceedings involving 42 Chileans who may have evidence relating to the murder of Orlando Letelier 24 years ago.
The 42 witnesses were last week subpoenaed by Chile's Supreme Court on behalf of the US government, in connection with the death of Letelier, a leading opponent of the Pinochet regime.