Lucía Hiriart
Lucía Hiriart | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First Lady of Chile | |
| In role 17 December 1974 – 11 March 1990 | |
| President | Augusto Pinochet |
| Preceded by | Hortensia Bussi |
| Succeeded by | Leonor Oyarzún |
| Personal details | |
| Born | María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez 10 December 1922 Antofagasta, Chile |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 5, including Inés Lucía Pinochet |
María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez (born 10 December 1922),[1] also known as Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet, is the widow of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Early life and education[]
Hiriart was born into a wealthy family on 10 December 1922 in Antofagasta to Osvaldo Hiriart Corvalán, a lawyer and former Radical Party senator and former Interior Minister of president Juan Antonio Ríos; and Lucía Rodríguez Auda de Hiriart, of French descent. She is a direct descendant of Dominique Joseph Garat.[citation needed]
Career[]
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Legal accusations[]
In 2005 Hiriart was sued by Chile’s Internal Tax Service ("Servicio de Impuestos Interno") over tax evasion totaling US$2.35 million and was arrested with her son Marco Antonio a few months later. In October 2007, she was arrested again in the frame of the Riggs case, along with Pinochet's five children and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his ex-lawyer and his ex-secretary) on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They were accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.[2][3]
In August 2016, Hiriart was accused of using funds from her NGO, . During Pinochet's time under house arrest in London, two separate transfers were made away from Chile to herself, in 1998 and 1999. Each transfer was totaled to be $50,000. According to her prosecutors, the money was used to pay for Pinochet's living expenses.[4] Hiriart was sued by two Communist Party lawmakers from Chile, Hugo Gutierrez and Karol Cariola, along with the (AFDD) for misuse of public assets owned by CEMA Chile for misappropriation of public assets, tax fraud, and embezzlement. CEMA Chile is accused of more than 30 properties for more than $18 million. During the investigation Hiriart resigned following a news report from November 2015 stating that she used sales and rentals of public lands from CEMA Chile for her own benefit.[5]
Personal life[]
On January 30, 1943 Hiriart married Augusto Pinochet Ugarte who was a Chilean army Infantry School lieutenant by that time. They had five children: three daughters (Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie) and two sons (Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio).
On 30 December 2018, Hiriart was hospitalized after falling at her home in Santiago and fracturing her arm and multiple ribs.[6]
References[]
- ^ Vega Lopez, Fernando (2013). La familia: Historia privada de la familia Pinochet (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Santiago de Chile: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial. p. 9. ISBN 9789568410926. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
- ^ Pinochet family arrested in Chile, BBC, 4 October 2007 (in English)
- ^ Cobertura Especial: Detienen a familia y principales colaboradores de Pinochet Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine, La Tercera, 4 October 2007 (in Spanish)
- ^ Franklin, Jonathan (2016-08-19). "Pinochet's widow under investigation on suspicion of swindling millions". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
- ^ "Communist lawmakers file suit against Pinochet widow for fraud". Fox News Latino. 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
- ^ "Lucía Hiriart sufrió accidente casero y fue internada en el Hospital Militar" (in Spanish). Cooperativa. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
External links[]
- Analysis of her arrest (in Spanish)
- CEMA Chile (in Spanish)
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- 1922 births
- Living people
- First Ladies of Chile
- Chilean people of French descent
- Chilean Roman Catholics
- People from Antofagasta
- Augusto Pinochet
- Pinochet family