MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet's daughter on the run requests US asylum

Lucia Pinochet, eldest daughter of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, has requested political asylum in the United States, the Chilean government said Wednesday.

Ms. Pinochet made the application while in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, where she arrived early Wednesday after allegedly leaving Chile to escape prosecution on tax evasion and false passport charges.

Chilean Interior Minister Francisco Vidal said his government was formally notified of the asylum bid by the U.S. Ambassador in Santiago Craig Kelly.

Chilean Judge Carlos Cerda, investigating magistrate in the case involving Augusto Pinochet's multi-million-dollar fortune discovered stashed abroad, has determined that Lucia, along with other members of the family, must stand trial.

Pinochet's wife and three of his five children were released on bail Tuesday in Santiago after Cerda ordered them to stand trial in the case. But 64-year-old Lucia, the eldest daughter, had fled by car to Argentina, from where she boarded a flight for Washington arriving early Wednesday.

"We are interviewing her," said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. While Pinochet was being detained, she was not under arrest. Under normal procedures, a person who tries to enter the U.S. and is detained by customs is entitled to an admissibility interview.

"If they are not going to be admitted into the U.S., then they would be put on a flight back to the country that they originated in," Trevino said.

Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker said the U.S. government told Chile on Wednesday that Pinochet was being transferred to an immigration service detention center and that a decision could be made on her request for asylum within three days.

"We are absolutely confident that it will be rejected," Walker said.

Speaking prior to word of Lucia's application for asylum, Chilean president Lagos used the word "sad" to describe the situation. "All this damages the country's image, it's sad" Mr. Lagos told reporters.

The mother of three, Lucia Pinochet is a career real estate broker who managed an insurance brokerage during her father's rule, 1973 to1990. She now has a side business in selling antiques imported from Miami.

Lucia is regarded as the most political of Pinochet's offspring and the one whose advice he would be most likely to seek. Until 2000, she was director of the Pinochet Foundation.

A judicial investigation in Chile has found that former dictator Augusto Pinochet, 90, accumulated a fortune of at least 27 million US dollars deposited in secret accounts in several foreign banks, money on which he never paid taxes.

The wife and family's children are also accused of evading taxes on those funds. Lucia as her father has been indicted for using false passports as part of the scheme.