Pinochet stable after heart attack

SANTIAGO.- Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet suffered a heart attack on Sunday and was given a bypass operation which his son said brought him back from the brink of death.

Pinochet was rushed to a military hospital in the Chilean capital Santiago around 2 a.m. (0500 GMT).

Surgeons operated on him and, seven hours later, a doctor said that the 91-year-old retired general was stable, conscious and breathing without assistance.

"At the moment he's stable ... he's conscious and he's in a good condition", hospital doctor Juan Ignacio Vergara said.

Pinochet's relatives and friends rushed to his bedside. His former personal secretary Monica Ananias was in tears as she arrived at the clinic.

Pinochet's son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, said his father was in a "pretty serious state".

"They gave him a bypass, a medical procedure to practically bring him back from death. We're in the hands of God and the doctors," he told reporters.

The hospital said it would give an update on Pinochet's state of health at 7.00 p.m. (2200 GMT).

Pinochet marked his birthday last week by issuing a statement in which he accepted "political responsibility" for acts committed during his rule. However, he said his only motive was to make Chile "a great place and prevent its disintegration".

"Today, close to the end of my days, I want to make clear that I hold no rancor toward anybody, that I love my country above all else," he said in the statement.

Two days later he was placed under house arrest in connection with the murder of two bodyguards of former Marxist President Salvador Allende -the man he overthrew in a 1973 coup.

Human rights lawyers have complained in the past that Pinochet's health deteriorates every time he is detained.

Despite Pinochet's dismal human rights record, some Chileans love him and said he saved the Andean nation from Marxism.