In a rare interview, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet described himself yesterday as a “angel.” After he took power in a U.S.-backed military coup in 1973, he oversaw the killing of at least 3,000 dissidents and political opponents. He added, “I never aspired to be a dictator because I considered that to be a dictator would end badly. I always acted in a democratic way.” Between 1998 and 1999 he was held under house arrest for 17 months in Britain on genocide charges.