Pinochet Supporters Heckle Chile’s President

Chile’s president delivered his last address to the nation Friday, a speech overshadowed by demonstrations for the immediate liberation of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator held in Britain.

Rightist opponents of Eduardo Frei’s government gathered outside the legislature where he delivered the annual address.

The Senate president, Andres Zaldivar, had to order demonstrators expelled from the galleries when they heckled Frei and prevented him from speaking.

A Spanish magistrate is seeking to extradite Pinochet to face trial for alleged human rights abuses stemming from his 17-year dictatorship, which ended in 1990. Pinochet was arrested Oct. 16 in London.

Frei promised Friday to send lawmakers a legislative initiative that, if approved, would call for a vote on reforming a constitution inherited from the military government led by Pinochet.

But the initiative appeared to have little future: The center-left coalition backing Frei has the majority in the lower Chamber of Deputies but not in the Senate.

Before the speech, right-wing legislators approached the diplomatic corps in the legislature and delivered letters to the ambassadors of Spain and Britain demanding Pinochet’s liberation.

Frei used his speech to laud robust economic growth in Chile this past decade. But he noted that world financial crises and a low price for Chile’s major export, copper, had made the year difficult.