Posted on 12/03/2006 1:29:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SANTIAGO, Chile - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 17-year dictatorship carried out thousands of political killings, widespread torture and illegal jailings, clung to life in a Chilean hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack and being administered last rites.
Just eight days earlier, the 91-year-old former strongman took full responsibility for the actions of his 1973-90 regime after long insisting any abuses were the fault of subordinates.
Pinochet underwent an emergency angioplasty to restore the flow of blood to his heart, and doctors described his condition as "serious but stable." They planned to perform bypass surgery later in the day, state television reported.
"We are now in the hands of God and of the doctors. My father is in very bad condition," Pinochet's younger son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, said at Gen. Luis Felipe Brieba Military Hospital.
Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, a member of the team attending the former leader, said the heart attack was "indeed life threatening," especially because of Pinochet's age.
Pinochet's health had been deteriorating for years. Doctors implanted a heart pacemaker in 1993 and he suffered from diabetes and arthritis. He also was diagnosed with mild dementia caused by several strokes.
The health problems helped Pinochet escape trial for the human rights abuses committed during his regime, with courts ruling out proceedings at least twice in recent years as victims of his rule pressed efforts to bring him to justice.
Last week, Pinochet was put under house arrest after being indicted in the executions of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende, the freely elected Marxist president who was toppled in a bloody 1973 coup led by Pinochet as commander of the Chilean military.
The heart attack came barely a week after Pinochet's 91st birthday on Nov. 25, an occasion he marked by issuing a statement for the first time taking full political — though not explicitly legal — responsibility for abuses committed by his regime.
"Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbor no rancor against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration," the statement said.
Pinochet fell ill around 2 a.m. and was rushed to the military hospital accompanied by his wife, Lucia Hiriart.
He underwent an angioplasty, in which doctors introduce a catheter to a patient's blocked artery and inflate a small balloon to enlarge it, restoring blood flow to the heart. Doctors said the procedure was successful and Pinochet remained conscious in the intensive care unit.
Pinochet's younger son said his father had been "virtually rescued from death" with the angioplasty. But the former leader's spokesman, retired Gen. Guillermo Garin, also said last rites had been administered.
Pinochet's grown children and other relatives, former aides and retired military officers went to the hospital, as did Chile's army chief, Gen. Oscar Izurieta.
As news of the heart attack spread, some 50 Pinochet supporters, most of them women, gathered in front of the hospital, some holding his portrait.
"How could I not be desperate? He's like a father to me, and we all owe him so much," said Julieta Aguilar, standing outside holding a small bronze bust of Pinochet.
Ricardo Lagos Weber, spokesman for President Michelle Bachelet, said the government was closely following the situation.
Critics of Pinochet have often argued that his health problems were being exaggerated to help him avoid trial.
"Pinochet is used to becoming ill every time a court ruling is near," human rights lawyer Hiram Villagra told Radio Bio Bio after the heart attack was reported. "He is hospitalized every time he faces an indictment, that is why we have doubts this time, too."
The Santiago Court of appeals was scheduled to rule Monday on Pinochet's appeal of last week's indictment and the house arrest order.
The house arrest was the fifth such action taken against Pinochet on charges stemming from human rights violations during his dictatorship.
The indictment alleges kidnapping and homicide in connection with the deaths of two Allende bodyguards who were arrested the day of the coup, Sept. 11, 1973. Both were executed by firing squad four weeks later, the military regime announced at the time.
According to an independent commission appointed by the first civilian government after Pinochet's rule, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during his regime and more than 1,000 of them were "disappeared" by burying them in secret graves or tossing them in the sea.
Pinochet faces two other indictments, one tied to allegations of rights abuses and one involving tax avoidance charges.
Very true. If Pinochet had attacked Americans in his speeches as "Capitalist Exploiters", he would now be treated like a saint by the Chomsky crowd and the useful idiots. Instead, he performed a good deed by stopping Communism from destroying his country. The useful idiots here condemn him for what he had to do to stop the KGB and their sympathizers from turning Chile into a Cuban or Zimbabwe style Soviet paradise. Pinochet proves that no good deed goes unpunished.
That's exactly the point. When you start murdering those who beat you at the polls, the Republic is already gone. Our Republic, like it or not is hinged on the democratic process. We're nothing if we cease being a free people.
I hope he's in great pain and terrified. He should be.
You're the one talking about murder. I'm talking about preservation. When trash piles up in your house, do you remove it or do you allow it to accumulate until it's above your head ?
Indeed, he did. Some actually have the capacity to comprehend that. ;-)
I guess you're one of those who believes that document is a mutual suicide pact. Good to know.
We are only free as long as we do and support those that understand what it takes to preserve freedom. A substantial number of people in this nation, partly deliberately, partly by sheer ignorance, have no idea what the concept even means. That's how evil rises, and we must remain vigilant to defeat it -- by any means necessary.
According to the Allende apologists in this thread, apparently not. Shame on every last one of them.
Yes, the Left would love Pinochet if he had sided with the Soviet Union rather than the United States. However, we do not have to like Pinochet just because we are relieved that his actions prevented a communist takeover in Chile. Pinochet did not have to commit all the atrocities he perpetrated to keep the Soviets from seizing Chile. A lot of what he did was simply to preserve his own power.
We should not imitate the Left and choose dictators to admire simply because they oppose some of the things that we oppose.
I pray for your ignorance, sir.
for a moment I thought Freerepublic had gone DU! Nightmare.
Hello??? Pinochet is a hero! In every sense of the word.
Lots of ignorance about Chile here folks.
Indeed. She knew who was an ally, and who was not. Definitely more so than some misguided souls on this thread.
Look at the Monroe Doctrine.
The US has Veto Power over all of Latin America!
Bump that.
When I happened upon this thread, I was expected to find some good wishes and prayers for the General. Instead, I found nothing but sludge and hate that was more to be expected for mass-murderers like Castro and psychotic dictators like Chavez. Truly disgusting.
Pinochet did not have to commit all the atrocities he perpetrated to keep the Soviets from seizing Chile.
So you support and approve the Allende regime ?
Prehaps a Pinochet is needed in Iraq. Some nations need strong men.
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