The world is less safe for former dictators, human rights abusers and war criminals as a result of the Pinochet affair, despite Mr Jack Straw's decision to allow him return to Chile yesterday on grounds of ill-health. This conveniently removes a politically embarrassing issue from the British political, diplomatic and legal scene. It leaves the question of General Pinochet's liability for prosecution in Chile open - and he would be well advised to avoid leaving its borders again.
There can be no denying the judicial and ethical landmark represented by the House of Lords' decision to allow the case brought by the Spanish lawyer Baltasar Garzon, based on General Pinochet's responsibility for torturing prisoners in Chile. It established the principle that national sovereignties and amnesties cannot guarantee immunity from prosecution for such crimes throughout the civilised world. It overturned the principle that heads of state enjoy immunity from international prosecution. That it coincided with the establishment of international courts to hear cases of human rights abuses - in general and in particular - established new universal legal norms, the implications of which will take many years to work out.
These new principles are nothing if not politically controversial. General Pinochet became a heroic figure for right-wing leaders like Mrs Margaret Thatcher who regarded him as a "political prisoner" in Britain, a martyr in the battle against radical socialism - views that are enthusiastically championed by his many supporters in Chile and elsewhere. Many more moderate right-wing leaders have been cautious about accepting the universalist logic of the House of Lords decision, believing he would best be tried in Chile; but they are unable to answer the case that constitutional and political immunity there made that impossible.
It must also be recognised that in Latin America there have been deep misgivings across the political spectrum about the breach of national sovereignty involved, particularly since it originated in Spain, the former colonial power. But there, too, political and legal argument rages about the precedents established for Argentine, Guatemalan or other former military dictators with bloody records of torture. In Chile a new centre-left president, Mr Ricardo Lagos, was elected in January with a mandate to consolidate its democracy. General Pinochet returns to a country much less willing to tolerate his impunity and no longer in fear of the power he wielded. All this demonstrates that the issue of how to balance national sovereignty with cosmopolitan justice is here to stay. It is not restricted only to the most developed democracies, nor can it easily be contained in a simple polarity of left versus right.
There is much to regret in the substance of Mr Straw's decision and his indecisive handling of it. Other expert medical advisers differed from the findings of his medical team that General Pinochet was unfit to stand trial. There is, too, a lingering suspicion that the decision is an opportunist means of avoiding the consequences of the ethical foreign policy proclaimed for the New Labour government by the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook.