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Hortensia Bussi | Allende's widow, 94

Hortensia Bussi, 94, the widow of Chilean President Salvador Allende who helped lead opposition to the military dictatorship that ousted him in a bloody 1973 coup, died Thursday in Santiago while taking a morning nap, her doctor said.

Hortensia Bussi, 94, the widow of Chilean President Salvador Allende who helped lead opposition to the military dictatorship that ousted him in a bloody 1973 coup, died Thursday in Santiago while taking a morning nap, her doctor said.

Her husband, an avowed Marxist, was elected president in 1970 and was toppled in an uprising by the military led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Allende killed himself Sept. 11, 1973, rather than surrender while under air and ground attack at the presidential palace.

His wife, known as Tencha, had sought refuge at the home of a family friend. The next day, she was flown on a small air force plane to the resort city of Vina del Mar for her husband's burial. She would later complain that the military sealed the coffin without letting her see his body.

Ms. Bussi went into exile in Mexico, where she was active in campaigns against the Pinochet dictatorship. She lived there with two of her three daughters - Carmen Paz and Isabel, who is now a congresswoman for her father's Socialist Party. The third daughter, Beatriz, lived in Havana with her Cuban husband.

Ms. Bussi returned to Chile in 1990 after civilian rule was restored. - AP