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Chilean Dictator Suffers Heart Attack

The man who led Chile in a coup d?etat in 1973 and went on to become one of South America?s worst dictators, Augusto Pinochet, is in critical condition after suffering a heart attack. The 91-year old is fighting for his life in the Santiago Military Hospital and insiders say that a priest has read the former leader his last rites. Medical practitioners treating Pinochet say that his condition is critical and they could not say how long he had to live.

Pinochet has spent the last few years fighting against the state?s demand to bring him to trial for human rights atrocities during his 17-year rule. In the past five years, the state has indicted Pinochet on two separate cases of human rights abuse, although he was found medically unfit to stand trial and the cases were dismissed against him. Thousands of people were allegedly tortured, beaten and murdered under Pinochet?s reign. He is also accused of stashing away over $27-million from tax fraud and illegal arms sale.

Pinochet?s health has gradually deteriorated over the past years. In 2005, after suffering his first stroke, he was fitted with a pacemaker. He also has a long history of diabetes. Pinochet?s latest heart attack leaves him also battling pulmonary edema, where his lungs are slowly filling with fluid. "He is in the hands of God and the doctors," his son Marco Antonio Pinochet said.