Lucía Hiriart

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.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Hiriart and the second or maternal family name is Rodríguez.
Lucía Hiriart
Personal details
Born
María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez

(1922-12-10) 10 December 1922
Antofagasta, Chile
NationalityChilean
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1943; died 2006)​
Children5, including Inés Lucía Pinochet
Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez and members of her family at the funeral of her husband Augusto Pinochet on 12 December 2006.
Lucia Hiriart and 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.

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, CEMA Chile. 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 Relatives of Disappeared Detainees Group (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 Chilean army general Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. 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
  1. 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.
  2. Pinochet family arrested in Chile, BBC, 4 October 2007 (in English)
  3. 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)
  4. Franklin, Jonathan (2016-08-19). "Pinochet's widow under investigation on suspicion of swindling millions". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  5. "Communist lawmakers file suit against Pinochet widow for fraud". Fox News Latino. 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  6. "Lucía Hiriart sufrió accidente casero y fue internada en el Hospital Militar" (in Spanish). Cooperativa. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Hortensia Bussi		 First Lady of Chile
1973—1990		 Succeeded by
Leonor Oyarzún
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