Police And Protestors Clash In Chile

Police and thousands of protestors marching against former dictator General Augusto Pinochet clashed Saturday.

Police unleashed water cannons on demonstrators in front of the presidential palace and several demonstrators were detained.

A press photographer was seen bleeding from the head. No details were immediately available on the injury.

Meanwhile, a small group of supporters kept a vigil outside Pinochet's heavily guarded luxury home in Santiago.

Inside, the 84-year-old former dictator rested, shielded from the deep divisions and conflict that he inevitably stirs among Chileans.

His son Marco Antonio said Pinochet was "still tired but recovering" after a surprisingly brief stay at a military hospital the day before.

Pinochet returned home Friday after 503 days under house arrest in Britain. He had been held on a warrant by a Spanish judge who wanted to extradite him and try him for human rights abuses during his 1973-90 dictatorship in Chile.

An official government report says 3,197 people died or disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's secret police after he toppled the elected Marxist president in a 1973 coup.

British Home Secretary Jack Straw released Pinochet after doctors said he was mentally and physically unfit to stand trial. But on arrival here Friday, Pinochet quickly added fuel to the controversy: He appeared surprisingly vigorous after the 24-hour flight from London.

A lavish military-organized welcoming ceremony for Pinochet at the airport Friday infuriated the government, politicians and socialist President-elect Ricardo Lagos. Just one week away from assuming power, Lagos expressed his discontent.

"It does not help Chile. I lament it," he said.

Pinochet's supporters defended the reception.

"I think it was modest, considering what Gen. Pinochet means," said congresswoman Maria Angelica Cristi. Sen. Sergio Romero called the criticism "hysterical."

After stepping off the plane in a wheelchair lowered to the ground by an elevator, he suddenly stood to embrace army commander Gen. Ricardo Izurieta and other military brass, relatives and associates.

He walked to a waiting helicopter, barely using a cane. At one point, he lifted the cane vigorously to acknowledge greetings from well-wishers.

"Pinochet is not as sick as they made us believe," said Mireya Garcia, secretary of an organization of dissidents who disappeared after being arrested by Pinochet's security services. "He has cheated everybody."

Demands continue to mount for a trial in Chile. The influential Catholic church urged Pinochet, "his health permitting, to offer his cooperation to justice, so that many wounds in our fatherland can be healed."

The general already faced 60 legal complaints related to disappearances during his dictatorship. On Saturday, suit No. 61 was filed.

Pinochet was arrested under a Spanish warrant Oct. 16, 1998, while recuperating from bac surgery in a London hospital. He spent most of his detention under 24-hour guard in a rented mansion outside London while the Spanish judge, several European nations and human rights groups fought to have him extradited for trial.