The former president of Chile, Patricio Aylwin, has died aged 97 of natural causes, his family reported. Aylwin, a centre-right Christian Democrat, became president in 1990 and oversaw the transition to democracy following 17 years of military rule under General Augusto Pinochet.
A prominent backer of the 1973 military coup against elected President Salvador Allende said that General Augusto Pinochet betrayed those who supported the putsch out of patriotic sentiments. Roberto Thieme, a founder of the nationalist Homeland and Freedom movement, known as PyL, spoke out a week before the 40th anniversary of Allende's bloody ouster in an interview with Radio Cooperativa.