Lucía Hiriart
| Lucía Hiriart | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First Lady of Chile | |
|
In office 11 September 1973 – 11 March 1990 |
|
| President | Augusto Pinochet |
| Preceded by | Hortensia Bussi |
| Succeeded by | Leonor Oyarzún |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez December 10, 1922 Antofagasta, Chile |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Spouse(s) |
Augusto Pinochet (1943–2006; his death)
|
| Children |
|
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez (born December 10, 1922), also known as Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet, is the widow of former Chilean general Augusto Pinochet.
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. Hiriart married Chilean army general Augusto Pinochet Ugarte on January 30, 1943. They had five children: three daughters (Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie) and two sons (Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio).
In 2005 Hiriart was sued by the Chilean Internal Revenue Service ("Servicio de Impuestos Internos") over tax evasion totaling US$2.35 million and was arrested with 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 are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
Hiriart was under investigation for allegedly selling various community properties totaling millions of dollars. Along with these allegations, Hiriart is 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.
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Wikipedia