Uruguay's last military dictator, General Gregorio "El Goyo" Alvarez, died Wednesday at age 91 of heart failure, a defense ministry official said.

Alvarez, who played a central role in a 1973 coup that installed a military regime in Uruguay, ruled the country from 1981 to 1985 before it returned to democracy under mounting popular pressure.

He was serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights violations and was transferred to a Montevideo hospital two weeks ago.

Human rights activists called on Uruguayans to remember victims on the occasion of his death.

"With the greatest respect, a rapist, a murderer, a torturer, a 'disappearer' doesn't redeem himself by dying," said lawyer Oscar Lopez Goldaracena, who participated in Alvarez's trial rights abuses.

Thousands were jailed, tortured or killed by the regime in Uruguay, one of many Latin American countries where the military ruled with brutal repression during the Cold War.

"The first thing I thought is, he died with the secret of all the people he 'disappeared' and killed," said activist Beatriz Benzano, imprisoned under the dictatorship and a victim of sexual assault by her jailers.

Today, Uruguay is governed by a leftist coalition that includes former Tupamaro guerrillas and other former opponents of the military regime.