The remains of the great Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, will be exhumed as part of a murder investigation.
Neruda died in 1973 and since 1992 is buried in his home museum alongside his wife Matilde Urrutia on Isla Negra.
His fans and the public in general were led to believe he died from complications of prostate cancer. The murder investigation, which started last year, was prompted by the Community Party of Chile which believes Neruda, a former member, was poisoned on orders of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Neruda, 69 at the time, was hospitalized during the Chilean coup led by Pinochet and many suspected he was poisoned by lethal injection while hospitalized for his cancer treatment. Now we will find out if that is true.
The investigation continues despite an Aug. 30, 2012 report from the medical examiner’s office that pointed to prostate cancer as the proximate cause of Neruda’s death. Neruda had suffered from cancer for several years before he died on September 23, 1973.
