Mario Benedetti, a prolific writer whose novels and poems reflected the idiosyncrasies of Uruguay's middle class and a social commitment forged by years in exile from the country's military dictatorship, died Sunday, his secretary said. He was 88.
Benedetti died at his home in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo. He had suffered from respiratory and intestinal problems for more than a year.
Called "Don Mario" by his friends, he wrote more than 60 novels, poems, short stories and plays, winning numerous honors including Bulgaria's Jristo Borev award for poetry and essays, and Amnesty International's Golden Flame prize.
His novel "The Truce" (1960) was translated into 19 languages and adapted to cinema, theater and television.
Robert J. Sinclair, an automobile executive whose brainchild, the Saab 900 convertible, turned Saab into a prestigious brand in the American market, died May 10 in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he had lived since shortly after his retirement in 1991. He was 77. The cause was cancer, his son Gregory said.
Sinclair, who had been a salesman and midlevel executive at the Swedish automaker in the late 1950s and early 1960s, rejoined the company in 1979 as president of its American division. Recognizing a niche in the American market, he pushed for his division to have its own identity, separate from Saab's workaday image in Europe.
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