Chile Wants to Exhume Poet’s Body as Part of Death Investigation
Pablo Neruda was one Chile’s most prominent poets and there have been rumors about how he died from almost forty years now. Neruba won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. Two years later, he would die less than two weeks after the Chilean government was overthrown and some say it was murder.
In June, Judge Mario Carroza ordered an investigation into the poet’s death. Neruda’s death certificate lists the cause of death as prostate cancer; however, a former employer of his says that he was murdered. Carroza said that investigators would review medical records, as well as police reports and witness statements. However, the judge did not specify whether the poet’s body would be exhumed.
The Neruda Foundation maintains a website about the Communist poet. The foundation was created by his widow who also says that she does not want his body exhumed. She said that it would be an act of desecration. She does state that the coup that overthrew the government was one of the most significant dates in Neruda’s life. Many of his friends became political prisoners or had to go into hiding abroad. There are some of Neruda’s friends who never did return to Chile for fear of reprisal.
Neruda’s chauffeur says that his employer was given an injection while he was at the hospital receiving treatment for his cancer. He has given his sworn statement that the injection was what actually killed Neruda and that it was not an accident, but murder.
Neruda was not only a poet, but was also a lawmaker in Chile and its ambassador to France. Earlier this year, Salvador Allende, who was a former president of Chile, was exhumed. The official reports of his death stated that Allende committed suicide. In July, Allende’s death was confirmed to have been by his own hand.
