| On Saturday, the former dictator of Chile, 89-year-old Augusto Pinochet, found himself in a hospital bed. In the morning, at breakfast, he felt ill and fainted. His wife Lucia Hiriart immediately called the army commander, General Juan Emilio Cheira, and called an ambulance. At 9.55 Augusto Pinochet was admitted to a military hospital. A few minutes later, Commander-in-Chief Cheire, his wife, children and a dozen grandchildren of Pinochet arrived there. It turned out that the ex-dictator had “a stroke followed by fainting, neurological deficit and impaired motor function.” His son Marco Antonio said that “this heart attack is stronger than the previous ones due to stress,” and called on Chilean judge Juan Guzman to personally make sure that the general is sick and not “putting on a show.”
Three years ago, health problems (moderate dementia, diabetes, an electronic heart stimulator) freed Pinochet from trial. And this time the ex-dictator found himself in the hospital on the eve of today's meeting of the appeal court, which must decide whether to satisfy Judge Guzman's order to place Pinochet under house arrest on charges of murder and kidnapping of dissidents during the military regime (1973-1990) and participation in "Operation Condor". As part of this operation, on November 25, 1975 (Pinochet's 60th birthday), the military regimes of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay agreed in Santiago to jointly fight the leftist opposition. As a result, tens of thousands of people were killed and disappeared.
Last Friday, another high-ranking participant in those events suffered a blow. The 79-year-old ex-dictator of Argentina, General Jorge Rafael Videla, also ended up in the hospital. Andrey ZLOBIN
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