Remains of Pablo Neruda to be exhumed

Pablo Neruda

The remains of the poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, will be exhumed as a fundamental part in the research that seeks to clarify his death.

A statement from the Neruda Foundation explained: “A few days ago Pablo Neruda Foundation was informed of the decision of the minister (judge) Mario Carroza  determining the exhumation of Pablo Neruda’s body buried next to Matilde Urrutia on Isla Negra”.

The process to be followed during the exhumation and the date on which the forensic tests will be made will be determined in March.

Judge Carroza, initiated the investigation in 2012 after receiving a complaint for the alleged murder of the poet introduced by the Communist Party of Chile, in which he was a member.

The complaint was supported by Manuel Araya’s statements, Neruda’s personal driver and collaborator, who said publicly that  Neruda were poisoned by agents of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, when he was admitted to a clinic in Santiago due to cancer.

Araya narrated that Neruda felt bad because he suffered from prostate cancer, that’s why he was taken from his home in Isla Negra to Santa Maria Clinic in Santiago. At the hospital, the poet would have been poisoned with a lethal injection while he was hospitalized, by agents of the military regime. In his account, Araya, 65, said that Pinochet ordered to kill Neruda to avoid his trip to Mexico, where he could become a staunch opponent of his regime.

Neruda’s remains are buried since 1992 in his home in Isla Negra (120 km west from Santiago), next to his wife Matilde Urrutia. There, Neruda lived his last days and today is a museum in honor of his memories which exhibitis their belongings.