The news of October 1998 that General Pinochet had been arrested in Britain presaged two years of international interest in the case and its ramifications for travelling tyrants the world over. Marc Cooper went to Chile and became translator to Salvadore Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist head of state. With an office in the Moneda Palace, the author had to flee as the US sponsored bombing on September 11, 1973 sent the palace up in flames.