MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet accosted on the street.

A woman claiming to be the sister of a man killed under Chile's 1973-1990 military regime accosted former dictator Augusto Pinochet on a city street Monday, shouting insults and attempting to strike him, the local press reported.

The incident occurred just before midday in Iquique, a city in Chile's far north, where the retired general arrived several weeks ago to escape the cold of the Southern Hemisphere winter in Santiago.

Pinochet, 87, was coming out of the headquarters of Cema-Chile, a charity that was headed during the dictatorship by his wife, Lucia Hiriart, when a group of supporters drew near to greet him.

A woman appearing to be in her 40s emerged from the crowd and asked the former strongman to pose with her for a photo. He agreed, and the large contingent of bodyguards and police accompanying him allowed her to approach.

Once next to Pinochet, the woman began shouting accusations at him in connection with the death of her brother, who was executed by the military in the northern city of Arica not long after the coup that brought the former dictator to power in September 1973.

Several witnesses said the woman then sought to strike Pinochet, but was subdued by the bodyguards before she could land any blows.

The woman, identified by unofficial sources as an employee of Chile Barrio, a government agency that provides housing for poor families, was briefly detained by police and will later have to appear in court. Pinochet had been seen on several outings in the city prior to Monday's incident. He spent much of his military career in Iquique and has friends in the area.

Last year, his stay in the northern city was enlivened by an incident in which his bodyguards manhandled some teenages firing BB guns into the air on the beach near the condominium where Pinochet was staying.

According to the Rettig Report, compiled in 1991 after the restoration of democracy, more than 3,000 people died during the military dictatorship, while thousands more suffered imprisonment and torture.

Though he was indicted in connection with 75 killings and disappearances that took place under his rule, the Chilean Supreme Court ruled last year that Pinochet was suffering from dementia and, as such, unfit to stand trial.