Hiriart aroused robust reactions amongst Chileans for the perceived affect she had on Pinochet, who dominated for 17 years.
Lucia Hiriart, the widow of late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, has died on the age of 99, her household mentioned.
Her demise on Thursday got here three days earlier than a polarised presidential runoff in Chile by which one of many two candidates defended the legacy of Pinochet’s navy regime.
Hiriart aroused robust reactions amongst Chileans for the perceived affect she had on Pinochet and for the fortune accrued by her household. Her property managed a controversial basis, which was subjected to a number of judicial probes.
“On the age of 99 and surrounded by household and family members, my beloved grandmother handed away. She leaves an immense mark on our hearts,” her granddaughter, who goes by Karina Pinochet on Twitter, posted on the social community.
“She gave her life to the service of Chileans and historical past will know worth her nice work and her work for our beloved nation. Relaxation in Peace.”
An individual holds a placard studying ‘Goodbye previous woman’ as demonstrators congregate after Hiriart handed away in Santiago, Chile on December 16, 2021 [Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters]Pinochet, a navy normal, overthrew the nation’s democratically elected leftist authorities in a bloody 1973 coup. Throughout his 17-year reign, greater than 3,000 individuals have been killed or disappeared and tens of hundreds tortured.
Throughout the dictatorship within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, Chile additionally established a lot of its present market-oriented financial system, which helped drive a long time of progress but additionally spurred inequality.
In a biography by the journalist Alejandra Matus, Hiriart is portrayed as a tricky character who typically criticised her husband. The 2 have been married from 1943 to 2006, when Pinochet died.
Chileans will vote for a brand new president on Sunday between progressive Gabriel Boric and far-right Jose Antonio Kast, who has beforehand defended Pinochet’s legacy and mentioned the previous dictator would have voted for him if he have been nonetheless alive.
“Lucia Hiriart lived with impunity, regardless of the deep ache and division that she brought about our nation,” Boric tweeted following her demise. He referred to as for “extra respect” for the victims of the dictatorship and for Chileans to work for “justice and a dignified life”.
Kast didn’t instantly touch upon Hiriart’s demise on the social networking website.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from a Kast rally within the capital Santiago on Thursday, the ultimate day of campaigning forward of the election, mentioned the race is extraordinarily shut and “each single vote will rely” on Sunday.
For a lot of Chileans, Kast – an extremely conservative and a staunch Catholic who’s against abortion and same-sex marriage – represents the previous, Newman mentioned.
However he is also the candidate of legislation and order, “and that’s one thing that many Chileans are craving for after two years of social upheaval”, she reported. “That’s the reason lots of people have turned to him at this second of polarisation.”
