CHILE: Chile's former strongman Augusto Pinochet marks 91st birthday with letter assuming all responsibilities for actions taken during his government

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet marked his 91st birthday on Saturday (November 25), surrounded by friends and relatives but, more than ever before, circled by lawyers who want to put him on trial. Pinochet marked the event at his home in the exclusive La Dehesa district of the Chilean capital Santiago, with his wife, Lucia Hiriart, reading a letter he wrote saying he did not hold any grudges. "Today, close to the end of my days, I want to say that I do not hold any grudges against anyone, I love my country above all else and I assume all political responsibilities for everything that has been done," his wife read from the letter. "With the conviction that I had no other path to help Chile grow and avoid its disintegration." This year, unlike last, he is free from house arrest and is expected to receive well-wishers. In previous years, a band of mariachi musicians has visited him and serenaded him with his favourite song, a ballad called "El Rey" (The King). But while Pinochet's supporters toasted his longevity inside, a legion of lawyers in the outside world are seeking to bring him to court for a host of alleged crimes, including kidnap, torture and other human rights abuses. Pinochet, who ruled Chile for 17 years until 1990, is also accused of embezzlement and tax evasion in connection with millions of dollars hidden in secret foreign bank accounts. Only last month, the government said it was investigating claims he hid about nine tonnes of gold in a Hong Kong bank account, a claim his family and the bank have denied. Since his last birthday, the political tide in Latin America has turned against Pinochet's generation of strong-arm dictators, who dominated the continent's politics in the 1970s and 1980s. His contemporary Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay ruthlessly for 35 years, has died, and Uruguay's former dictator Juan Bordaberry is in jail awaiting trial. Populist leftists have made gains across much of the continent, vowing to prosecute their former leaders. And in Chile itself, Michelle Bachelet, who survived Pinochet's torture chambers, has become president. Whether anyone will be able to bring Pinochet to trial is another matter. His defense lawyers have so far successfully argued that he is unfit to stand trial for health reasons. The cases against him have moved slowly because, as a former president, he enjoys immunity from prosecution. Each time he is charged, the supreme court must decide whether to lift immunity. Around 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during the former general's rule and some 28,000 were tortured after he overthrew Marxist president Salvador Allende in a 1973 coup. Thousands of Chileans left the country for exile.

ITN Source | November 26, 2006

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