Chilean Billionaire Ricardo Claro, 74

Ricardo Claro, 74, a Chilean billionaire and South American industrialist who was a leading force in dictator Augusto Pinochet's successful efforts to lure American investment back to Chile in the 1970s and 1980s, died Oct. 28 in the capital Santiago after a heart attack.

Mr. Claro established himself in the 1970s as part of the "piranhas," a circle of aggressive and socially connected businessmen from prominent families. He used his access to the Pinochet government to amass companies nationalized under socialist President Salvador Allende and turn them into spectacularly successful enterprises.

As chairman of the Claro Group, his best-known holdings were Compañia Sudamericana de Vapores, which he built into one of the largest shipping carriers in Latin America, and plowed a fortune into upgrading such storied Chilean vineyards as Viña Carmen and Viña Santa Rita. He also owned one of the top television stations in the country, MegaVisión, the financial newspaper Diario Financiero and the bottling giant Cristalerías de Chile.

A prosperous businessman with links to ultraconservative causes, Mr. Claro became a favorite of the Pinochet regime after the bloody 1973 coup that overthrew Allende.

Within days of the new government, Mr. Claro assumed the rank of ambassador and became economic adviser to the ministry of foreign affairs. He helped return nationalized companies to their owners and was an ardent supporter of strengthening economic ties to China as well as the United States, where he became a presence on the diplomatic circuits in New York and Washington.

He felt deeply slighted when the U.S. government briefly banned Chilean fruit in the late 1980s after the discovery of cyanide in two grapes.

Mr. Claro, whose businesses were directly affected by the ban, quit as board chairman of the Chilean-North American Institute of Culture, a Santiago organization with ties to the U.S. Information Agency. He made news as a vocal supporter of a conspiracy theory alleging the U.S. government created the grape scandal to embarrass and pressure Pinochet into stepping down from power.

"I believe a group of U.S. government officials engaged in an unauthorized covert action," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Over the years, Mr. Claro dismissed rumors that his shipping containers were used to help Pinochet "disappear" those deemed enemies of the government, according to the publication Qué Pasa. He lost a lawsuit this year in which he sued a Chilean newspaper for publishing a story calling him one of the leading civilian supporters of the Pinochet dictatorship, according to the Santiago Times.

In 1976, while Chilean coordinator of an Organization of American States conference in Santiago, Mr. Claro sharply criticized five Chilean lawyers who used the occasion to circulate a condemnation of Pinochet's human rights abuses. Mr. Claro called their actions "an unspeakable act of treason."

Ricardo Claro Valdés, whose father was a stockbroker, was born Aug. 26, 1934. He received a law degree from Universidad de Chile in 1958 and from 1961 to 1996 was a professor of economic policy at his alma mater.

Although he denied rumors that he was a member of Opus Dei, he remained active in conservative Catholic organizations and charities. He made headlines for refusing to air advertisements for birth control products on his television station.

Mr. Claro received papal awards and was widely believed to have left the bulk of his fortune to the church. He died shortly after attending a theatrical production of Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro."

Survivors include his wife, María Luisa Vial.