Scenes of jubilation filled central Madrid's Puerta del Sol yesterday afternoon when the news reached the people there that the law lords in London had decided that Gen Augusto Pinochet did not enjoy immunity from prosecution.
Many of those present were Chilean and Argentine victims and their families who greeted the news with delight. Many wept with joy, while others cheered and chanted with excitement.
"This is a moral victory even if in the end Pinochet is not extradited," said one Chilean exile. "Today is a just starting point. Nothing will be the same again in South America."
The vigil in the Puerta del Sol began in the morning and built up as the time for the announcement approached, and then continued long after the news reached them.
Human rights organisations joined with politicians and union leaders carrying banners and placards supporting the extradition and trial for Gen Pinochet on charges of genocide, terrorism and torture.
Mr Carlos Eslepoy, a lawyer representing many of the victims, welcomed the decision, saying it was a major step forward in the fight for human rights.
Mr Baltasar Garzon, one of the two magistrates investigating the murder and disappearance of hundreds of dual-nationality Spanish citizens, must now finalise his case against Gen Pinochet to ensure that it is absolutely watertight and cannot be thrown out on any technicality.
The Spanish government has tried to distance itself from the judiciary over the extradition request. Trade and cultural relations between the two countries are particularly close. Spain is the third-largest foreign investor in Chile behind the US and Canada, and there are currently 40,000 Spaniards resident in Chile. In Santiago yesterday some Chileans reacted with joy, others with anger. The President, Mr Eduardo Frei, said he would send the Foreign Minister, Mr Jose Miguel Insulza, to London today in a new effort to free Gen Pinochet. Mr Insulza will also travel to Madrid in an attempt to persuade Spanish authorities to drop their extradition request, Mr Frei said.
Thousands of demonstrators, mostly young people, raced into the streets of downtown Santiago shortly after the decision to express their approval of the ruling.
Boisterous in their jubilation, the demonstrators headed down the capital's main avenue toward the central Plaza Italia, undisturbed by police, with the relatives of some of those who disappeared during Gen Pinochet's 1973-1990 reign at their head.
At the other end of the city in eastern Santiago, Pinochet supporters received the news live on five giant screens erected on a building bearing the former dictator's name.
After a brief moment of perplexity, some burst into tears as the general's oldest son, Augusto, said: "My father received this hit on his birthday". In Paris, National Assembly members applauded and relatives of victims of the former Chilean dictatorship opened bottles of champagne. Assembly members on all sides of the 577-seat lower house of parliament clapped when the ruling was announced during question time.
"This is a historic decision . . . Britain has really joined European justice," said Mr Jacques Miquel, a lawyer.
Following in Spain's footsteps, France has formally requested Gen Pinochet's extradition over the disappearance of three French men in Chile under his rule.