The British Home Office has said that it has no information about reports that the health of General Augusto Pinochet has badly deteriorated. Supporters of the former Chilean dictator in Santiago said that two of his children were travelling to England to be with him. However, official sources and Pinochet supporters in Britain have said that they know nothing of the reports, leading to speculation that the General's family are trying to exert pressure to have him released from detention in Britain on health grounds.
The head of the Pinochet Foundation in Santiago said that the General had become very depressed. Luis Cortes Villa said that the announcement was not intended to be alarmist or to secure the former president's return to Chile. General Pinochet, who is 84, has been under house arrest in England for more than a year while fighting extradition to Spain on torture charges.
