MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bankrupt Pinochet nephew offering kidney on sale

A nephew of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is offering on sale one of his kidneys in a last ditch effort to survive from bankruptcy, reports this week the Santiago press

"I don't have any other choice" Gonzalo Townsend Pinochet told the El Mercurio newspaper, adding that he went broke after a clothing business he owned in Puerto Montt, 680 miles south of Santiago, failed.

Mr. Townsend said he was in such a desperate situation that he did not even want money for the kidney, just a job, "doing whatever". Mr. Townsend, who has always been a staunch supporter of his uncle, said he had written to 140 businessmen whom his family helped when it was in power and only one replied.

A few years ago, Mr. Gonzalo Townsend was the president of the Magallanes professional soccer team.

He also founded the Movimiento Pinochetista Unitario to "defend the work and legacy" of his uncle, but the party, which Mr. Townsend hoped would be a vehicle for winning the presidency, died out because of lack of support.

He also revealed that his financial condition was so desperate that even his phone service had been cut off because of unpaid bills.

"I graduated in journalism, political science, public relations and as a publicist, but who is going to hire a 54-year-old man with my last name?" pleaded Mr. Townsend.

Augusto Pinochet faces prosecution for human rights violations plus an alleged tax evasion investigation, illicit enrichment and fraud in connection with some 16 million US dollars discovered last year in supposedly family secret accounts in Washington's Riggs Bank.