Pinochet hospitalized after heart attack

Jack Chang and Helen Hughes, McClatchy… Pinochet hospitalized after heart attack

Jack Chang and Helen Hughes, McClatchy Newspapers

Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who has been the target of numerous human rights prosecutions, suffered a heart attack early Sunday morning and was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

The controversial 91-year-old ex-leader underwent emergency heart surgery to clear a blocked artery and was given the last rites at the Hospital Militar in the Chilean capital, Pinochet family friend Giorgio Agostini told reporters. Pinochet underwent a separate operation in the afternoon, another of his spokesmen said.

In recent months, Pinochet has been on the defensive on several fronts as Chilean judges pursue his prosecution for financial corruption as well as kidnappings and executions committed during his reign as dictator.

Pinochet rose to power after ousting elected socialist President Salvador Allende in a bloody 1973 coup that was aided by the CIA and the Nixon administration. Official figures show Pinochet’s government was responsible for the politically motivated killings and disappearances of 3,197 people. He ceded power to an elected government in 1990.

On Nov. 27, he was placed under house arrest in connection to the kidnappings and executions of two Allende security guards in the days after the coup. Pinochet has suffered several strokes and has escaped past prosecutions due to his fragile health.

At his Nov. 25 birthday party, Pinochet’s wife read a statement in which the weakened ex-dictator accepted “full political responsibility for what happened” during his time in power. The statement said he had acted with “no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration.”

Venezuelans vote for president

Steve Dudley, McClatchy Newspapers

Venezuelans formed snaking lines outside polling stations Sunday to cast their votes in an election that pits President Hugo Chavez, seeking another six years in power, against challenger Manuel Rosales.

Long lines spread for several city blocks in different parts of the capital city of Caracas as voters slowly filed into the schools that host most of the 33,000 voting tables.

“I voted for my commander,” Jorge Mendoza, a 48-year-old carpenter, said, referring to Chavez. “He does things that no other government has done.”

Chavez has appealed to voters because of his social programs but upset others because of his tendency toward socialist policies and increasing ties with Cuba.

“We don’t want communism,” Elsa Pinango said after she voted for Rosales in the Valle district on the southwestern side of Caracas.

The two candidates represent opposite ends of the political spectrum but coincide in their proposals to use the country’s burgeoning oil wealth to fund social programs and subsidize basic goods.

Chavez, an avowed enemy of the Bush administration, arrived to vote Sunday morning in a red Volkswagen in the housing projects known as “January 23rd.”

He added that he was pleased that the U.S. government had recently spoken to newly elected presidents Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa in Ecuador and offered his own olive branch of sorts.

“All the countries deserve our respect. We want to have the best relations with them, including the United States,” he said.