Ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973-1990 and spent his old age fighting human rights, fraud and corruption charges, died this evening a week after suffering a heart attack. He was 91.
Augusto Pinochet of Chile in 1975
A brief announcement by the Santiago Military hospital said the former leader died from heart complications.
Doctors said his condition worsened suddenly and he was rushed back to the Intensive Care Unit, from which he had been removed only on Thursday while recovering from an acute heart attack he suffered one week ago.
Relatives and friends of Pinochet were arriving at the hospital. "He died surrounded by his family," Dr Juan Ignacio Vergara told reporters outside the hospital.
Pinochet, who was diabetic and had been in frail health for years, underwent bypass surgery after the December 3rd heart attack.
He was given Roman Catholic last rites and his son said the surgery had brought him back from the brink of death.
Pinochet was under house arrest at the time of his recent heart attack, accused in the deaths of two bodyguards of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, who he ousted in a coup.
The charges were the latest in a series against Pinochet, who issued a statement last month on his 91st birthday suggesting he realized his death could be near.
"Today, close to the end of my days, I want to make clear that I hold no rancor toward anybody, that I love my country above all else," he said in a statement read by his wife on his 91st birthday last month.
In the statement, he accepted "political responsibility" for acts committed during his rule.
Pinochet, under whose rule thousands of dissidents disappeared, became a hate figure for left-wingers worldwide from the moment he seized power in his country in 1973.
It was a hatred which was to dog him right up to his death, more than 15 years after his downfall in 1990.
Even as he died, he was facing multiple charges of kidnapping, torture and murder and accusations of fraud, tax-evasion and drug-trafficking.
His last years were dominated by a series of complex legal moves over his immunity as a former head of state from his alleged human rights crimes.
On occasions, when he was by this time a very old man, his poor health was also used by lawyers to prolong his immunity — not always successfully.
Ironically, it was during Pinochet's private visit to Britain in 1998 that his apparently secure position of immunity was smashed.
He was arrested in London at the request of the Spanish government which wanted him extradited to face charges over the disappearances and murders of Spaniards in Chile. But that extradition did not take place.
British Home Secretary Jack Straw, ruled that, on health grounds, he should not be extradited, and Pinochet returned home to Santiago and a hero's welcome in March 2000.
After five months, Chile's Supreme Court stripped him of his immunity and on December 1st he was indicted on kidnapping charges and put under house arrest. During his long army career, Pinochet had managed to hide his right-wing sympathies to such an extent that even the clever left-wing President Allende was taken in.
In August 1973, he appointed Pinochet head of the Chilean army. It was a catastrophic error on Allende's part.
Three weeks later Allende was dead and Chile was embarking on 17 years of oppressive military dictatorship under Pinochet.
The truth of Pinochet's involvement in Allende's overthrow became apparent early in 1998, when a recording of the general talking to another coup leader was released.
Pinochet was heard discussing what to do about Allende, who was refusing to leave the Moneda presidential palace despite the bombs raining on it from the Chilean air force's British-built Hawker Hunters.
Pinochet being helped after losing his balance at his home in Santiago in 2000
The general told Vice Admiral Patricio Carvajal: "The offer to take him (Allende) out of the country is maintained... but the plane falls, old chap, when it's in the air."
The doomed flight never took place. Allende died in the palace, possibly forced to kill himself by Pinochet's troops. Pinochet was born in Valparaiso on November 25, 1915. He joined the military despite the wishes of his father who wanted him to study medicine.
Pinochet rose through the ranks and was rewarded in 1971 with the command of the Santiago garrison, before fatefully becoming head of the army in 1973.
He was an arch-nationalist who referred to Chile as "the fatherland" and an admirer of Spain's "Caudillo" Francisco Franco.
The general also regarded himself as an English gentleman, saying London was his favourite city after Santiago.
In 1988 Pinochet organised a referendum which he confidently expected would endorse his ambitions to continue. He was shocked when he lost the poll, even though he gained 43 per cent backing, and eventually agreed to step down in 1990. Even then, Pinochet insisted on guarantees that he would remain head of the armed forces for another decade.
He also remained legally protected from prosecutions over human rights abuses. But he failed to grasp that his position abroad was less secure — a mistake which led to his arrest in London on October 16th, 1998.
This was the start of some 15 months of complex legal moves with noisy crowds of pro-and anti-Pinochet campaigners maintaining an almost permanent presence outside the Palace of Westminster.
Then, in what seemed a boost for Pinochet, on October 28th, the High Court in Britain unanimously ruled that he was "entitled to immunity as a former sovereign from the criminal and civil process of the English courts."
By then, Pinochet had been moved to a private psychiatric hospital, Grovelands Priory Hospital, in Southgate, north London and the legality of the Spanish proceedings had been affirmed by the 11 judges of Spain's National Court. On November 11, the formal extradition request, signed by Judge Garzon reached Mr Straw.
It implicated Pinochet in around 3,000 deaths. But on November 25, his 83rd birthday, Pinochet was dealt a devastating blow as the Law Lords in a three-to-two judgment ruled that he was not immune from prosecution, even though a former head of state.
Chilean President Salvador Allende (R) and General Augusto Pinochet in undated file photo
After that Pinochet moved to a house on the exclusive Wentworth Estate, Surrey, where he was kept under house arrest until his subsequent departure.
Mr Straw then set in train an Authority to Proceed instrument by which a formal extradition request was passed to the United Kingdom courts.
By now Pinochet was saying that he regarded his extradition battle as "the most difficult and unjust experience in my life".
In a long letter to the Chilean people he proclaimed he was "absolutely innocent of all the crimes and all the facts of which I am accused".
Meanwhile, there was more legal trouble, when the Law Lords' ruling was set aside because one of them, Lord Hoffmann had a long-standing relationship with Amnesty International.
The following March, the Law Lords upheld the decision that Pinochet did not enjoy immunity, but they reduced the number and range of charges against him. And in April, Mr Straw gave the extradition the go-ahead.
But the bitter battle continued, even after Bow Street Magistrates committed Pinochet on all 35 charges, saying that "all the conditions are in place" to require Pinochet to await Mr Straw's final decision on extradition. Meanwhile, the year 2000 had barely dawned when Pinochet underwent seven hours of tests at Northwick Park Hospital, north London, to assess his fitness to be extradited.
A few days later, Mr Straw said he was "minded" to release Pinochet on the basis of his medical reports. This was followed on March 2nd by the decision that Pinochet should not be extradited. He returned home to a hero's welcome.
But more questions were raised about his state of health as he abandoned his wheelchair and walked away unaided from the aircraft to be greeted at Santiago. Within six weeks, more trouble flared.
A Chilean court started to deliberate whether Pinochet should stand trial, and in August 2000 Chile's Supreme Court stripped him of his immunity, clearing the way for a trial. And on December 1st, after recovering from a bout of pneumonia, he was indicted on kidnapping charges and put under house arrest.
However, the cases were dismissed on medical grounds (dementia). Pinochet resigned from the senate and rarely made public appearances. However, in 2004, the Court of Appeals voted to revoke his dementia status and consequently his immunity from prosecution.
This was followed by more legal moves concerning the deaths of his opponents during his rule. He was also arraigned on tax fraud and foreign bank account charges, misappropriation of funds and bribery involving more than three million dollars.
While these machinations were in progress, Pinochet and his son Marco were accused this year of producing chemical and biological weapons and the sale and trafficking of cocaine.
And in October, he was charged with 36 counts of kidnapping, 23 counts of torture and one of murder for the torture and disappearance of opponents.