MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

General Pinochet dies aged 91

Former dictator Augusto Pinochet, who polarised Chile during his violent 1973-1990 military rule and spent his old age fighting human rights, fraud and corruption charges, died on Sunday. He was 91.

Pinochet, who was diabetic and had been in frail health for years, had been in hospital for a week, recovering from an angioplasty procedure after a heart attack.

"He died surrounded by his family," Juan Ignacio Vergara, a doctor at the military hospital where he died, told reporters. Vergara said Pinochet's health had suddenly deteriorated on Sunday.

In a sign of how much Pinochet still divided his country -- which has become a model of political stability during the last 16 years of democracy -- some Chileans danced in the street at the news, while others wept outside the hospital.

Pinochet grabbed power in a U.S.-supported 1973 coup after airforce planes bombed the government palace and elected socialist President Salvador Allende killed himself shortly afterward.

More than 3,000 people died in political violence under Pinochet's rule, many at the hands of repressive secret police. Some 28,000 people were tortured in secret detention centres and hundreds of thousands of Chileans went into exile.

Car horns blared as detractors of the deceased former dictator danced and cheered in Plaza Italia, a major intersection near the city centre where Chileans usually congregate to celebrate sporting victories.

Over a thousand weeping supporters gathered outside the military hospital on Sunday, singing in broken voices the national anthem and praises to their deceased general.

"He made mistakes like every human being, but he did a lot for this country," said Adriana Malter, a grandmother and shopkeeper, outside the military hospital. "This country is the way it is thanks to him."

Dozens of police stood by outside the hospital, in case of violence.

One of Pinochet's most important allies from the 1980s, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher reacted through a spokesperson, who said: "Lady Thatcher was greatly saddened to hear the news of Mr Pinochet's death and sends her deep condolences to his widow and his family."

While Pinochet's Cold War anti-Communist stance won him support from Thatcher and from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, at home he sowed hatred and polarisation.

Guillermo Tellier, president of Chile's small Communist Party said "he died with a dirty conscience."

Pinochet's body was to be moved on Sunday evening to a military chapel for viewing, but it was not clear how the Chilean government would handle a funeral for the former dictator.

Some Chileans say he should be given full state honours while others would regard that as a disgrace.

Government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber declined to discuss the issue earlier this week.

Pinochet was accused of dozens of human rights violations but a lengthy effort to bring him to trial in Chile failed as his defence lawyers successfully argued that he was too ill to face charges.

He was under house arrest, in one of the rights cases against him, for his 91st birthday in November, and at the time he issued a statement suggesting he realised his death could be near.

"Today, close to the end of my days, I want to make clear that I hold no rancour towards anybody, that I love my country above all else," he said in a statement read by his wife.

In the statement, he accepted "political responsibility" for acts committed during his rule