Free Republic

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...

SANTIAGO DE CHILE - Gen. Augusto Pinochet took full responsibility for the first time Saturday for the actions of his 1973-90 dictatorship, which carried out thousands of political killings and is blamed for widespread torture and illegal imprisonment. At a celebration of his 91st birthday, Pinochet also defended the bloody military coup that toppled freely elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, in a statement read aloud by his wife as he sat by her side. "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...

Remembering Another 9/11 Allende's 1973 Ouster Halted Communist Rule in Chile Henry Kissinger once quipped that Chile was a dagger pointed straight at the heart of Antarctica. That quip melted in the white heat of another 9/11--Sept. 11, 1973, when the Chilean military ousted from power the first Marxist-Leninist regime to reach power via the ballot box. The revolution that put an end to the government of Salvador Allende Gossens would become the most successful in the history of Latin America. It would also become the most reviled in the annals of Latin America. Since--by comparison with other major...

The economy's growth has never before been so driven by real estate. Now that engine is sputtering. Jiany Massad isn't quite ready to throw in the towel on his fledgling career as a Miami real-estate tycoon. But if the local housing market continues to head south, the 30-year-old real-estate broker is already making alternate plans. "I might restart my old business," he says of a home decorating company that specialized in high-end window treatments. "At least it's real-estate-related." With home sales down by nearly a third in Florida last quarter, thousands of those who hoped to cash in on the...

(JHR) The Bible talks about a great apostasy that will occur in the last days before the anti-christ is revealed. In the second book of Thessalonians it states: "Don't be fooled by what they say. For the coming of the Lord will not occur until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed -- the one who brings destruction." (2 Thessalonians 2:3) One major Christian organization is now demonstrating that the great falling away, known in most Christian churches as the great apostasy, is well underway. Traditional Values Coalition (http://www.traditionalvalues.org/about.php) claims as its organizational...

Traditional Mass Propers For The Feast Day ofSaint Bernard of Clairvaux( Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost ) 20 August 2006 A.D. Missa Deus In Loco Santo Suo "....Ephpheta, that is, Be thou opened...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

In an event that surprised thousands across the globe, former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet has succumbed to kidney failure at the Clinica Tabancura in Santiago, Chile. "We were taken aback," said Dr. Roberto Yono Xisto, "we were convinced he'd live." A nurse, Amanda Soifalsá, declared that, "I was taken aback at the General's death. He stopped breathing just like that." Pinochet, held responsible for 3,197 deaths after a coup he led against Salvador Allende in 1973, was being accused of a varitey of crimes. Judge Jaime Guzmán declared that "it's truly a depressing momement because Augusto Pinochet wasn't brought to...

A court opened the way for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to be prosecuted in 59 cases of torture and kidnapping that took place at one of his regime's secret prisons, one that once held President-elect Michelle Bachelet and her mother. The president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Juan Escobar, said on Friday the justices voted 13-5 to lift Pinochet's immunity, but the ruling that must be upheld by the Supreme Court before the 90-year-old former strongman can be tried. Pinochet's defense said an appeal will be filed. Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, were arrested 15 months after the...

SANTIAGO, Chile - Former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity Friday to face charges of diverting public funds to personal bank accounts. Judge Juan Escobar, president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, said his tribunal voted 21-3 to remove the immunity Pinochet enjoys as a former president. Friday's decision is part of a wider corruption-related legal process in which Pinochet also lost immunity against charges of tax evasion and secret overseas bank accounts totaling as much as $28 million. A person with legal immunity must be stripped of it separately in each case. The ruling adds...

THE former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was fingerprinted and photographed for the first time overnight as police opened a criminal file into his alleged role in the deaths of political opponents in 1975. Officers came to Pinochet's home in the elegant La Dehesa neighbourhood, where he has been under house arrest for five weeks, to fingerprint and photograph the aging strongman

Gen Pinochet has been placed under house arrest in Santiago Former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet is spending his 90th birthday under house arrest after being indicted for the second time in 48 hours. The latest charges centre on the disappearance of dissidents in 1975 in what was known as Operation Colombo. Gen Pinochet had just been freed on bail after being charged on Wednesday with tax evasion and passport fraud. His lawyer Pablo Rodriguez defended the ex-ruler as a man who had devoted his life to leading Chile "forward". More than 3,000 people were killed when he was in power...

All bank accounts held by former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet in the United States have been ordered to be confiscated by judge Sergio Munoz, local daily La Nacion said Wednesday. Judge Munoz has appointed two government-employed managers to arrange the transfer of the assets from Florida to Chile, said the reports. Munoz has been investigating, for 14 months, a tax evasion case over the secret accounts of Pinochet and his relatives, mostly in the Florida-based Riggs Bank. Pinochet, 89, allegedly accumulated over 27 million US dollars abroad, and judge Munoz said he failed to pay 9.8 million dollars in taxes....

Excerpt - Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems, has been identified on US banking records as secretly paying more than £1m to General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator. A Guardian investigation has revealed some of the money was listed as being paid through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. Covert payments to Pinochet-linked groups are listed on documents compiled by the Chilean authorities and obtained by the Guardian. They record large payments from BAE as recently as last year.

SANTIAGO, Chile - The Supreme Court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution Wednesday, paving the way for an eventual trial of the former dictator in a human rights case involving the killing of 119 dissidents. The court voted 10-6 to strip the 89-year-old of former ruler of the immunity from prosecution he enjoys as former president, Chief Justice Jose Benquis said. The ruling, which cannot be appealed involves the 1975 killing of 119 dissidents whose bodies were found in neighboring Argentina. The Pinochet regime at the time said the victims had died in clashes among rival armed opposition...

Thirty-one years ago today.How Pinochet Saved Chile From Communism

SANTIAGO, Chile - Gen. Augusto Pinochet's wife and younger son were arrested Wednesday and charged as accomplices in a tax evasion case linked to an investigation into the former dictator's multimillion dollar fortune overseas. Lucia Hiriart, 82, and Marco Antonio Pinochet, who is in his 50s, were charged after being questioned by Judge Sergio Munoz, whose probe into the former dictator's overseas holdings was sparked by a U.S. Senate investigation. Gen. Augusto Pinochet issued a communique denying any wrongdoing but also taking "full responsibility for the facts being investigated" by the judge, and "denying any participation whatsoever by my wife,...

British troops raise the flag on the Falklands during the conflict A forthcoming book has revealed Chile's military intelligence helped Britain during the 1982 Falklands conflict.The book has threatened a possible diplomatic row between Chile and Argentina over the revelations of a secret alliance with the UK. Chilean president Ricardo Lagos has forwarded parts of the book to the Argentine foreign ministry. The book alleges Chile provided intelligence in return for half-price military aircraft. 'Cut-price deal'The book, The Official History of the Falklands War, details the deal between the governments of Margaret Thatcher and General Augusto Pinochet, said the...

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has suffered another stroke.The 89-year-old is reportedly in a stable condition in hospital, a day before a court considers whether he may be tried for abductions of opponents to his regime. Pinochet, who also suffered a stroke on May 19, lost consciousness at his Santiago home and was taken to the Military Hospital in the Chilean capital. "He was having breakfast when he fainted and lost consciousness for about 30 minutes," his son Marco Antonio Pinochet Hiriart said. Since his admission "he has progressed, he is stable and will remain in hospital for observation," said...

Associated Press Part of the large cache of military weapons found at Colonia Dignidad, an enclave in southern Chile established by an ex-Luftwaffe medic, a convicted pedophile who supported the Pinochet dictatorship. RIO DE JANEIRO, June 16 - The authorities in Chile searching for victims of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship who are said to be buried at the enclave of a secretive, apocalyptic religious cult of German émigrés have unearthed a large cache of weapons and intelligence files. "This arsenal is going to end up being the biggest ever found in private hands since the restoration of democracy in...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The head of the secret police under Gen. Augusto Pinochet said in a court document that the former dictator was responsible for the abuses committed by the feared security service, his lawyer said Friday. Retired Gen. Manuel Contreras also submitted a document to the Supreme Court disclosing the fate of more than 500 dissidents who disappeared after being arrested by his force, said Juan Carlos Manns, Contreras' lawyer. The report confirmed that many of the victims were thrown into the sea after being killed - a disclosure that had already been made last year by a...