Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet arrived home to a hero's welcome from supporters on Friday but critics questioned Britain's decision to spare him a human rights trial in Spain on the grounds of frailty.

The 84-year-old general's return from 17 months under house arrest in Britain sparked sharply contrasting reactions from Chileans, who regard Pinochet either as a tyrant who had leftist opponents tortured and killed or as a savior who halted a likely slide into communism.

Around 1,500 human rights activists demonstrated in front of the Moneda, the presidential palace that Pinochet bombed in his 1973 coup to oust Marxist president Salvador Allende, unraveling banners and posters of victims of the 17-year rightist dictatorship.

Anti-Pinochet activists planned a demonstration later Friday and a larger march on Santiago's main boulevard on Saturday to show their disdain for Pinochet's return.

The white-haired general, arriving after a 24-hour flight from Britain, was lifted out of the Chilean Air Force Boeing 707 in a wheelchair then rose stiffly to his feet as a brass band struck up his favorite military march.

He smiled as his feet touched Chilean soil for the first time, then, hobbling with the aid of a walking stick, Pinochet greeted family members and the military hierarchy at the airport to meet him.

Under tight security, including snipers and machinegun- toting bodyguards, the former commander-in-chief of the army was flown by helicopter to the military hospital in downtown Santiago where he was given a check-up.

He was discharged after several hours and local radio reported he was taken to a heavily guarded house he owns in Santiago.