Pablo Neruda case: experts report the cause of his death in Chile

A group of scientific experts investigating a possible poisoning poet Pablo Neruda in 1973, presented his report on Wednesday to the judge Chilean that he would study him in reserve while he was in the “investigation phase”.

Judge Paola Plaza He told a press conference that “the court was not aware of the contents of these reports until today.” He dissociated himself from everything that was reported in the press about Thesis what he the poet did not die of cancer but by introducing bacteria botulism.

“I cannot take responsibility for what is circulated in the press,” which any of the participants knew in advance, ”he said. Squarewho is leading an investigation that began more than a decade ago.

The expert report is non-binding, and Judge Plaza must decide what steps to take after the completion of this stage within a period she declined to specify.

The judge emphasized that “now comes the stage of consideration, study, consideration, evaluation, so that the court makes decisions in accordance with the law” in this case, which caused great anticipation due to the cause of death of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. , whose birth name was Neftali Reyes.

Rodolfo Reyes, a lawyer and the poet’s nephew, confirmed this week that the results obtained by laboratories in Canada and Denmark, to which he said he had access, are sufficient to confirm that Neruda was poisoned.

“Of course, this bacterium is a bioweapon that was injected by Pablo Neruda and he died a few hours later,” Reyes told AFP.

However, Bernardo Reyes, great-nephew of the author of 20 Love Poems and a Desperate Song, dismissed the case by the family, who are not the plaintiff and do not believe in Neruda’s murder thesis.

“Scientific opinion will not be able to determine its connection with the act of murder. Not to mention the fact that by 1973 in the country, during the dictatorship, there was still no development in murders using chemical technologies,” Bernardo Reyes said in an interview with AFP. writing from southern Chile.

He considered that his applicant relatives were “upstarts who do not even represent a family”.

According to the official version, nerudaaged 69, an avowed communist activist, died in a Santiago clinic on 23 September 1973 as a result of prostate cancer.

His death came 12 days after the military coup that overthrew the government of Salvador Allende and established a dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.

“Informed Guess”

Representatives communist party (PC) and the poet’s family suspended the public performance they were planning after the presentation of the report.

Contacted AFP, PC and Neruda Foundation They indicated that, for the time being, they preferred to exercise caution pending the judge’s decision after the report, which had been submitted in complete secrecy, had been read.

“At this point, we only have well-informed speculations according to the information provided to us, but nothing conclusive. So this should be investigated,” said Giulia Urquieta, the Communist Party lawyer in the Pablo Neruda case.

For its part, the Neruda Foundation, which manages the poet-diplomat’s museums and memorabilia, prefers to wait for the judge’s official verdict, said foundation president Kemi Oyarsun.

Judicial inquiry into causes death of Neruda started in 2012 after his former driver Manuel Araya told the press in 2011 that the poet could have been poisoned by the dictatorship Pinochetin which, according to official figures, more than 3,200 people died and about 38,000 were tortured.

In 2013, after the exhumation of the remains nerudaa group of Chilean and foreign experts confirmed that the poet died of prostate cancer.

But in 2015, research conducted in Chile and overseas discovered the presence of “Staphylococcus aureus”, a highly contagious bacterium that can be fatal.

In October 2017, a panel of 16 Chilean and foreign experts confirmed that the poet did not die of cancer, although the exact cause of his death could not be determined.

From January 24, 2023, the commission consisting of specialists from Canada, Denmark and Chile were working on an analysis of forensic evidence obtained from an investigation launched in 2012 to check whether Neruda had been poisoned.

Then another study of the bacterium began,botulinum clostridium’ found in the remains of Neruda.

(According to AFP)