Considered by many to inspire her husband’s work
(ANSA) – SANTIAGO DEL CHILE, DEC 16 – Lucia Hiriart, widow of the Chilean general Augusto Pinochet, author in 1973 of the coup d’etat in Chile against the then president Salvador Allende, died today in Santiago de Chile. She was 99 years old.
Considered an “iron woman” who had great power in the shadows during the years of the dictatorship (1973-1990), Hiriart had been ill for some time and, according to Chilevision TV, in recent months she had been hospitalized several times for problems. respirators “.
The news of the death was also confirmed via Twitter by her granddaughter Karina Pinochet: “At 99, surrounded by family and loved ones, my beloved grandmother died. She leaves an immense imprint on our hearts. She has dedicated her life to service of Chileans and history. He will know how to give the right value to his great work and work for our beloved country “.
Since her husband’s death on 10 March 2006, Doña Lucia – as she liked to be called – had chosen to keep a low profile, also due to the judicial problems concerning family assets and the management of Centers for Mothers (CEMA), a network of institutions it refused to leave despite Pinochet having to hand over power to the democratically elected president, Patricio Aylwin, in March 1990.
His last public appearance was in April 2020, after the death of Sergio Onofre Jarpa, former interior minister of the dictatorship.
In an unauthorized biography published in 2013 under the title ‘Doña Lucía’, journalist Alejandra Matus called her a “political strategist, of power in the shadows”, all the more so after Pinochet himself recognized that she was one of the people that had most influenced his decision to lead the coup against President Salvador Allende.
Lucia and Pinochet, who married in 1943, had five children: Lucia, Augusto, Verónica, Marco Antonio and Jacqueline. (HANDLE).