SANTIAGO, Dec. 31 -- Chilean President Eduardo Frei has accepted the resignation of the country's prisons director after four members of a clandestine left-wing group escaped from jail aboard a helicopter. Claudio Martinez said Tuesday he resigned 'out of dignity,' after four members of the Manuel Rodriguez Front were lifted from the yard at a maximum security prison in Santiago and transferred to getaway cars in a nearby park.
Frei rejected the resignations, however, of Interior Minister Carlos Figueroa ('KAR-lohs FEE-gehr-ROH'-ah') and Justice Minister Soledad Alvear ('soh-leh-DAD al-vay-AHR'. Following his confirmation in the post, Figueroa lashed out at members of the right who had demanded the resignations, accusing them of seeking political gain from Monday's escape. Two of the four escapees were serving life sentences for kidnapping and were charged in the 1991 assassination of conservative Sen. Jaime Guzman. All four were lifted in a bullet-proof basket into an armored helicopter that hovered over the prison yard. Socialist congressman Jaime Estevez ('HIGH-may ehz-TEH-vehs') said the jailbreak was serious and showed there were still 'terrorist groups in the country.' ---
Copyright 1996 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
