Lawyers Carmen Hertz and Alfonso Insunza, who have worked on the issue of human rights violations during Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule, filed formal charges with the Santiago Appeals Court against Pinochet for fraud, embezzlement and bribery.

The accusations were lodged after a US Senate probe into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found secret accounts opened for Pinochet that held 4 million to 8 million US dollars between 1994 and 2002.

All maneuvers to hide information by the retired Chilean general and Riggs Bank executives were "aimed at preventing the confiscation decreed by Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon," Hertz said.

Garzon ordered a freeze of Pinochet's accounts after he was arrested in London in 1998 on charges of crimes against humanity, but the US bank accounts were not found at the time.

"To us it is indispensable that in Chile, with all due transparency, the behavior of Pinochet is investigated, because he has made money transfers, according to the committee of the Senate, at least until 2003," Hertz said.

However, Pinochet's son and daughter said Tuesday that the Riggs accounts may have contained donations from friends who were worried about costly legal battles Pinochet might face after he left power in 1990.

Hertz termed as "pathetic" the declarations by Pinochet's son and daughter, saying that if the money deposited in the Riggs bank came from donations, they ought to have been declared for tax payment.

"Pinochet and his entourage have systematically lied in regard to the responsibility of Pinochet for the crimes, and lied about his relation to this embezzlement case," the lawyer said.

The Chilean court immediately assigned a special judge to look into the origin of the funds held in the Riggs accounts. Chile's state prosecutor, the State Defense Council, is also expected to launch its own investigation into the accounts later this week.

Pinochet, 88, who took control of Chile by ousting constitutional President Salvador Allende in 1973, faces hundreds of charges of homicide, kidnapping and torture in Chile but none of corruption.

There have been several failed attempts to probe his finances by journalists or lawmakers since the 1980s.
 

Mexican FM to meet with Powell, Rice
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Derbez will start a two-day visit to Washington to meet US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The visit aims at "continuing the dialogue with the US leaders and to solve bilateral issues between the two countries," Derbez said in a communique Tuesday.

Derbez will also meet senators Richrd Lugar, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Senate; Joseph Biden, vice chairman of this Committee, and Norm Coleman, chairman of the Sub-Committee for America.

During the visit, Derbez will sign an agreement on labor protection with the US Labor Department and the other one on nutritional assistance with the Agriculture Department.

According to the two agreements ,the Mexican government is to improve the living conditions of the Mexicans in the United States, the communique said.

Over 20 million people of Mexican origin live in the United States, but nearly five million of them are illegal residents.
 

Venezuela congratulates Bolivia on natural gas referendum
Venezuela on Tuesday congratulated the Bolivian government on conducting a successful referendum on natural gas policy.

"Bolivia won the concept of the integration of the South; won the people and the belief that the state has a role to play. Here we have moved in that direction for five years and congratulate the Bolivians for incorporating now into the process," Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister Jessy Chacon said at a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

Chacon said the result was "a negation of neoliberalism and a negation of the policy that places the market against the human being."

"We congratulate the Bolivians on moving from now along the same path of the revolution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," he added.

The partial results of the Sunday's referendum show the approval of the five questions proposed by the government in order to define Bolivia's new energy policy.

"We feel very well with the results of the referendum because it backed the Bolivian president and because the people said no to the loss of control over their resources," Chacon said.

"People said no to the hydrocarbon-resources law of ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, which was similar to the one the opposition wanted to impose here. Now the Bolivians are owners of their energy sector again," he added.

Bolivia has the second largest gas reserves in South America behind oil-rich Venezuela.