Hiriart was born into a wealthy family on 10 December 1922 in Antofagasta to Osvaldo Hiriart Corvalán, a lawyer and former Radical Party senator and former Interior Minister of president Juan Antonio Ríos. And Lucía Rodríguez Auda de Hiriart, of French descent.
She was First Lady of Chile from 1973 to 1990. She is a direct descendant of Dominique Joseph Garat. Hiriart married Chilean army general Augusto Pinochet Ugarte on January 30, 1943.
In 2005 Hiriart was sued by the Chilean Internal Revenue Service ("Servicio de Impuestos Internos") over tax evasion totaling United States$2.35 million and was arrested with son Marco Antonio a few months later.
In October 2007, she was arrested again in the frame of the Riggs case, along with Pinochet"s five children and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his ex-lawyer and his ex-secretary) on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£132m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet"s rule.
