Chile to investigate death of poet Pablo Neruda‎

Chile to investigate death of poet Pablo Neruda‎

2011-06-03 07:43:01 GMT+7 (ICT)

SANTIAGO, CHILE (BNO NEWS) -- A judge in Chile ordered an investigation into the death of Nobel prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda following a request by the Communist party, La Nación newspaper reported on Thursday.

Judge Mario Carroza accepted the complaint submitted by the Communist party for the alleged murder of Neruda, which occurred on September 23, 1973 in a private clinic in the Chilean capital. The party filed the lawsuit after Neruda's former driver said agents injected Neruda with poison on the orders of General Pinochet, twelve days after the military coup.

The investigation will determine the cause of death of the poet, who according to doctors, died of cancer.

Last month, Chilean authorities exhumed the remains of former President Salvador Allende as part of an investigation to determine his cause of death.

Until now, it is believed that Allende committed suicide inside La Moneda Palace in Santiago after the September 11, 1973 coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power for the next 17 years. However, many believed that Allende was killed in order to place Pinochet at the helm.

The investigation was ordered after court prosecutor Beatriz Pedrals presented 726 cases of complaints by victims of human rights violation committed since September 11, 1973 until March 11, 1990, among which is the death of former President Allende.

The case arose in 2010 after the Minister of the Supreme Court, Sergio Muñoz, detected that there were many cases of victims that were not being investigated.

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