Pinochet grandson sets sights on Congress

He has one of the most reviled names in Latin America, but after two decades in the political wilderness a Pinochet has decided it is time for a comeback.

Rodrigo Garcia Pinochet is running for Chile's congress in elections next Monday on the strength of his late grandfather's record as a dictator, dividing rightwingers and raising the prospect of a controversial dynasty.

Garcia Pinochet, 33, is using images of General Augusto Pinochet in his campaign to represent one of the richest and most conservative districts of the capital, Santiago. The general's widow, Lucia Hiriart de Pinochet, has blessed the candidacy.

The return of a name that once inspired dread and devotion in equal measure comes amid signs that the left-wing coalition that replaced the dictator 20 years ago this month is on the verge of losing power.

The popular President, Michelle Bachelet, is stepping down and polls say that the ruling party's candidate, Eduardo Frei, is struggling against Sebastian Pinera, a conservative billionaire businessman who would tilt Chile to the right.

Garcia Pinochet's entry into the electoral fray has given the main centre-right alliance a headache. He is running as an independent, claiming he wanted to "be accountable to the people, not political parties".

His candidacy threatens to split the right-wing vote in what has traditionally been an ultra-conservative seat.

The Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon complicated Garcia Pinochet's campaign last week by threatening to seize up to US$100 million from Banco de Chile as part of an investigation into Pinochet family funds. Garzon, who had the general arrested in London in 1998 in a fruitless attempt to put him on trial for terrorism and torture, suspects Pinochet's widow and three bankers of laundering funds pilfered during the dictatorship.

Of all the younger members of the Pinochet clan, Garcia Pinochet was perhaps the closest to Augusto. He was the last relative to see the dictator alive, in December 2006, as the 91-year-old general lay dying in his hospital bed.

And it was Garcia Pinochet - at the time only 10 - who was by Augusto's side in 1986 when, travelling back to Santiago from the countryside, the presidential motorcade was ambushed. The Pinochets survived but five bodyguards were killed.

- OBSERVER