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- <text id=91TT0220>
- <title>
- Feb. 04, 1991: World Notes:Chile
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Feb. 04, 1991 Stalking Saddam
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 55
- World Notes
- CHILE
- Pinocheques Scandal
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Admirers of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte always boasted
- that their man was incorruptible, but now his starched white
- uniform has been soiled by allegations of shady financial
- dealings involving high-ranking military officers and his
- family. Last week a legislative commission reported that there
- were probable legal irregularities in a questionable 1989 deal
- in which the army purchased a rifle factory from a group of
- private entrepreneurs. As part of the transaction, checks worth
- nearly $3 million were made out to Pinochet's eldest son,
- Augusto.
- </p>
- <p> The government investigation into the scandal, dubbed
- "Pinocheques," has touched off saber rattling by the military.
- The general, who stepped down as President last March but
- remains head of the army, is said to be so angry that many fear
- a showdown with the government is inevitable. The army is also
- smarting after four generals and 16 other officers retired
- following charges that they profited from an illegal "bank"
- known as La Cutufa, military slang for a raffle. Further
- humiliation awaits the army in two weeks when a government
- commission releases a report on human-rights abuses during the
- Pinochet dictatorship. Said a colleague of the general's: "If
- the government wants war, they'll get it."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-