(26 Oct 1998) Spanish/Nat
Thousands of Chileans are continuing to show their support for the detention of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, by taking to the streets of Santiago.
A peaceful rally of five-thousand anti-Pinochet protestors took place, on Sunday in one of the capital's parks, but in a separate incident protests turned violent and demonstrators clashed with police.
Demonstrators pelted police vans with rocks and police retaliated with water cannons and tear gas.
For the second day running anti-Pinochet supporters have protested in the streets of Santiago.
And some of the protests turned violent.
Fires were lit and demonstrators hurled rocks at police vans.
Police tried to control the protestors by spraying them with water and tear gas.
It's the second time over the weekend that violence has erupted in Santiago.
On Saturday, a rally by more than 20-thousand Pinochet supporters ended in scattered clashes with police.
Pinochet is under arrest at a London hospital, where he was arrested October 16 as he recovered from spinal surgery.
Pinochet was arrested on a warrant from a Spanish magistrate seeking to extradite him on charges of genocide, terrorism and torture during his regime.
His lawyers go to the High Court on Monday to try to get his arrest ruled invalid.
The violent scenes on the streets of Santiago were in contrast to the peaceful, five-thousand strong, anti-Pinochet gathering in a Santiago park also on Sunday.
Protestors ran riot on the streets not far from where the peaceful demonstration was taking place.
Many of the peaceful demonstrators celebrating Pinochet's detention waved banners and placards with pictures of loved ones that disappeared during Pinochet's regime.
Among those present was Faviola Letelier, whose brother Orlando was Foreign Minister under the government brought down by Pinochet's 1972 coup.
Four years later, he was killed by a car bomb in Washington.
The Chilean government has urged Britain to release Pinochet on humanitarian grounds, and argued that as a senator, he is entitled to diplomatic immunity.
Faviola Letelier said it was absurd to call for Pinochet's release on humanitarian grounds given that "he never made a humanitarian gesture in his life".
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
They're pressing to have Pinochet released for humanitarian and compassionate reasons. The fact that he never made a single gesture of humanity in his life towards the thousands of political prisoners and people who disappeared, with the sick. He never made any gesture of humanity!
SUPER CAPTION: Faviola Letelier, sister of Orlando Letelier
Britain insists Pinochet does not have immunity.
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