MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet resigns as senator-for-life

After being deemed mentally unfit for trial due to dementia, former dictator Augusto Pinochet resigned from his lifelong seat in the Chilean senate, officials reported Thursday.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had ruled that the 86-year-old retired general, who has suffered at least two slight strokes in recent years, was mentally unfit to stand trial on human rights charges.

Senate leader Andres Zaldivar on Tuesday asked the court to determine the legal status of the former dictator, saying, "The logical conclusion would be that a person who has been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial would also be declared unfit to exercise any post." Pinochet, whose lucidity has been affected by the strokes and his advanced age, has not attended Senate sessions during the past few years.

In August 2000, his legislative immunity was revoked so he could be prosecuted for his alleged responsibility in the case called "Caravan of Death," which involved the murder of more than 70 political opponents in 1973.

Pinochet formally resigned in a letter addressed to Zaldivar and delivered by Cardinal Archbishop Javier Errazuriz Ossa of Santiago, officials said.

His resignation came after several senators indicated they intended to ask the nation's Constitutional Court to disqualify Pinochet from the legislature.

He became a senator-for-life on March 11, 1998, after stepping down as commander of the army, a post he had held since August 1973, a month before heading the military coup that toppled President Salvador Allende, who died in the rebellion.

Pinochet received his seat under the provisions of the 1980 constitution he enacted, which entitled former presidents to the position of senator-for-life. The post is also held by former President Eduardo Frei, a Christian Democrat who governed from 1994 to 2000.

Pinochet's resignation was greeted with relief by groups across Chile's political spectrum, even among his own supporters.

"With this decision, my father puts the good of Chile first and makes another step toward reconciliation," son Marco Antonio told reporters.

Pinochet's younger son, who is the family spokesman, said his father's failing health prevented him from attending Senate sessions or taking part in its deliberations.

"I think that this (the resignation) is good for him and, without a doubt, for social peace; it is good for the country," said Cardinal Errazuriz, who received the resignation from Pinochet's hands.

More caustically, Christian Democratic Sen. Jorge Pizarro described the move as "better late than never," while deploring the fact that the former military chief would go unpunished for human rights violations