Thatcher sent Pinochet finest scotch during former dictator's UK house arrest

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Thatcher sent Pinochet finest scotch during former dictator's UK house arrest

• New revelation adds colour to close relationship between pair
• Pinochet oversaw death and torture of thousands of Chileans

Mat Youkee in Santiago
@matyoukee
Fri 4 Oct 2019 20.16 BSTLast modified on Fri 4 Oct 2019 21.40 BST

While he was under house arrest in Surrey in 1999, the former Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet received a fine malt from an old friend.

“Scotch is one British institution that will never let you down,” read the accompanying note from its sender: the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The detail, revealed this week in the third volume of Charles Moore’s biography of Baroness Thatcher, adds further colour to the close relationship between Thatcher and the man responsible for the death of more than 2,000 people and the torture of many more.

Thatcher was appalled that the Labour government had allowed the arrest of Pinochet while he was in London for medical treatment, overriding his diplomatic immunity.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/04/margaret-thatcher-pinochet-chile-scotch-malt-whisky

[RockRaven]

1. She is every bit as loathsome and morally reprehensible as Ronald Reagan, with an equally

undeserved reputation.

[Judi Lynn]

2. You said it. All that and pompous, too. n/t