The widow of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has died within the condominium the place she led a secluded life in her last years, away from the luxuries and energy she held through the army regime of 1973-1990
SANTIAGO, Chile — The widow of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died Thursday within the condominium the place she led a secluded life in her last years, away from the luxuries and energy she held through the army regime of 1973-1990, her household stated.
Lucia Hiriart died at her dwelling in Santiago’s prosperous La Dehesa neighborhood surrounded by shut kin, six days after her 98th birthday, her son Marco Antonio stated. She had been admitted on a number of events this yr to Chile’s army hospital, primarily affected by respiratory issues.
Pinochet died in 2006, on Dec. 10, his 91st birthday.
Identified for her sturdy character, Hiriart on many events influenced her husband’s choices on whom to nominate to public workplace. She was additionally recognized costly tastes in garments and in furnishing of her household’s properties.
Hiriart was hardly ever seen in public in recent times. A kind of events was in November 2015 when she attended a Mass in reminiscence of her late husband, with whom she had three daughters and two sons.
She confronted two judicial investigations associated to a fortune that Pinochet was found to have in additional than 100 financial institution accounts at Riggs Financial institution in Washington, D.C.
In 2005, she was accused alongside along with her son Marco Antonio of complicity in an $8.7 million tax fraud. In 2007, Hiriart, her 5 youngsters and 17 different folks from the dictator’s entourage have been charged with embezzlement of public funds.
In each circumstances, Chile’s courts overturned the prosecutions of Hiriart and her household. Fees in opposition to Pinochet himself have been dismissed after his demise. The Chilean excessive court docket confiscated about 20 items of actual property from the household and seized $1.6 million from Pinochet’s financial institution accounts.
Pinochet’s accounts at Riggs Financial institution had been found by probability in 2004 throughout a U.S. congressional investigation into an unrelated matter.
An accounting audit valued Pinochet’s accounts at about $21 million, with the origin of $17.8 million undetermined. The previous dictator claimed on the time that his funds overseas have been “life financial savings.”
Hiriart by no means had phrases of remorse for the bloody legacy of her husband’s dictatorship, which resulted in additional than 3,000 opponents killed, 1000’s of political prisoners tortured and tens of 1000’s compelled into exile.
After information of her demise surfaced Thursday, about 200 folks, most of them younger folks born after democracy was resorted in Chile, gathered in a central sq. to rejoice. They waved flags and held up improvised posters in opposition to Hiriart.
“Lucía Hiriart dies in impunity regardless of the deep ache and division she brought about our nation,” stated Gabriel Boric, the leftist candidate in Chile’s presidential runoff election Sunday.
His opponent, far-right politician José Antonio Kast, stated that “the demise of Mrs. Lucia won’t transfer the election for both facet.”
