Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet

María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez (10 December 1923 – 16 December 2021), also known as Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet, was the wife of Augusto Pinochet from 1943 until his death in 2006.

Augusto Pinochet served as the president of Chile from 1973 to 1990, during which time she was the nation's First Lady.

Early life and education

Hiriart was born into a wealthy family in Antofagasta, on 10 December 1923 to Osvaldo Hiriart Corvalán, a lawyer and former Radical Party senator and former Interior Minister of president Juan Antonio Ríos; and Lucía Rodríguez Auda de Hiriart, of French descent. She was a direct descendant of Dominique Joseph Garat.

Legal accusations

In 2005, Hiriart was sued by Chile’s Internal Tax Service ("Servicio de Impuestos Interno") over tax evasion totaling US$2.35 million and was arrested with her son Marco Antonio a few months later. In October 2007, she was arrested again in the frame of the Riggs case, along with Pinochet's five children and 17 other people (including two generals, one of his ex-lawyers and his ex-secretary) on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They were accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.

In August 2016, Hiriart was accused of using funds from her NGO, CEMA Chile. During Pinochet's time under house arrest in London, two separate transfers were made from Chile to herself, in 1998 and 1999. Each transfer was totaled to be $50,000. According to her prosecutors, the money was used to pay for Pinochet's living expenses. Hiriart was sued by two Communist Party lawmakers from Chile, Hugo Gutierrez and Karol Cariola, along with the Relatives of Disappeared Detainees Group (AFDD) for misuse of public assets owned by CEMA Chile for misappropriation of public assets, tax fraud, and embezzlement. CEMA Chile is accused of illegally acquiring more than 30 properties for more than $18 million. During the investigation, Hiriart resigned following a news report from November 2015 stating that she used sales and rentals of public lands from CEMA Chile for her own benefit.

Personal life

On 30 January 1943, Hiriart married Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, a Chilean army Infantry School lieutenant by that time. They had five children; three daughters (Inés Lucía, María Verónica, and Jacqueline Marie) and two sons (Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio).

On 30 December 2018, Hiriart was hospitalized after falling at her home in Santiago and fracturing her arm and several ribs.

Hiriart died in Santiago on 16 December 2021, at the age of 98.