by The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, was actually poisoned with a bacterium that caused his death in 1973. This is the conclusion of the third group of experts called to study the causes of his death the writer in September 23rd of that year at the Clínica Santa María, in Santiago, Chile, just 12 days after the coup in which Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of Salvador Allende.
The news was promoted on Monday night by the Spanish newspaper the countrywhich quotes the conviction of the poet’s nephew, Rodolfo Reyes, already reported by the Efe news agency.
“I can say that because I have seen the reports. I say this, as a lawyer and a nephew, with great responsibility, because the judge cannot report it yet, as he does not yet have all the information,” Reyes told the the country, giving an account of the outcome of the investigation conducted this year by a team of experts, which ultimately determined that the toxin found in 2017 in Neruda’s remains had been injected. This leads to the assumption that the actual cause of death was bacteria clostridium botulinumand not the prostate cancer diagnosed in 1969, as stated on the death certificate and also defended, in 2013, by the first panel of experts called to investigate the case.
“This is what we expected, because the 2017 panel had already found clostridium botulinum [no corpo]. But it was not known whether it was endogenous or exogenous, that is, whether it was internal or external. And now we have verified that it was endogenous and that it was injected or placed,” Rodolfo Reyes added to the Spanish newspaper.
This is the result of research now completed by an international team of scientists (Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark), based on tests carried out in laboratories in the latter country and also in Chile. As it progresses, the the countrythe findings of the investigation are expected to be made public on Wednesday, the day the report will be delivered to Judge Paola Plaza.
If what was proposed by Neruda’s nephew is confirmed, the position proposed in 2011 by the poet’s former guide, Manuel Araya – and later also claimed by the Communist Party of Chile – wins, that he was poisoned at the behest of the Pinochet regime. After all, it was these statements of Araya that led, in the same year, to the initiation of the investigation by the Chilean Justice and the exhumation of his mortal remains in 2013.
It will now be up to Judge Paola Plaza to evaluate this new scientific evidence and determine whether a lawsuit is warranted for possible third-party interference in the memoirist’s death. I confess that I lived.
