Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator who ruled Chile with an iron fist from 1973 to 1990, died Sunday from heart complications. He was 91.
Pinochet headed the military junta that controlled the country from 1973 to 1990, after a coup that deposed the democratically elected president Salvador Allende. During his reign, Pinochet ordered the violent suppression of all political opposition to his government. A commission determined that his military and government were responsible for human rights violations, including more than 2,000 deaths and untold numbers of disappearances.
Pinochet had been admitted to the the Santiago Military hospital last week with what doctors described as an acute heart attack. He underwent an angioplasty procedure in which doctors enlarge the clogged artery to allow restoration of the blood flow to the heart.
The brief announcement by the hospital said Pinochet's condition worsened suddenly and doctors rushed him back to the Intense Care Unit from which he had been removed on Thursday.
Peter Kornbluh, director of director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project and author of The Pinochet File, speaks with Andrea Seabrook about Pinochet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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