Chilean judge orders reopening of ‘Neruda case’ to clarify cause of his death

first Amendment: 02/21/2024 – 00:19

3 minutes

Even after more than 50 years, the cause of Pablo Neruda’s death remains a mystery. The First Chamber of the Appeals Court of Santiago decided unanimously to reopen the investigation into the death of the Chilean poet, who died on September 23, 1973, 12 days after the coup against the government by Augusto Pinochet. Of President Salvador Allende.

The court said, “As it appears from the background that the investigation has not been concluded, there are precise procedures that could contribute to clarifying the facts (…) a summary reopening is ordered.”

The case was closed in September 2023, when the judge in charge of the case, Paola Plaza, concluded that all necessary procedures regarding Neruda’s ‘official’ cause of death, prostate cancer with metastasis, were completed without any conclusion. Gone. Substantially refute the official version put forward in his death certificate.

Plaza declined to reopen the case in December after requests from Neruda’s relatives and members of the Chilean Communist Party, of which the poet was a member.

Now a panel of judges composed of Elsa Barrientos, Jorge Gómez and Maritza Villadangos concluded that “the investigation has not concluded” and ordered seven more proceedings to clear up the case.

Communist spokesman Juan Andrés Lagos said, “This decision is very important because it confirms our complaints and our background that the context in which the deaths occurred was intervened by the state terrorism apparatus of the civil-military dictatorship.” Party, for EFE Agency.

New interrogation of a doctor of dictatorship

The procedures followed by a Chilean judge’s recent decision also include a detailed analysis of the groups’ findings, in addition to a new expert opinion on the death certificate of the 1971 Nobel laureate in literature. Experts from McMaster and Copenhagen universities revealed the presence of a bacteria in Neruda’s body, which could have been the real cause of his death.

In 2017, both universities agreed on the presence of “Clostridium botulinum” in the poet’s teeth, also stating that, according to their scientific arguments, this substance “was in his body at the time of his death”, which would indicate that he was a Chilean. According to the family, he was “poisoned”.

Elizabeth Flores, the attorney for Pablo Neruda’s family, said, “Since 2017, Neruda has been screaming that he has ‘Clostridium botulinum’ in his body and that it came to him through third-party intervention.”

Furthermore, the new judicial proposal indicates the need to convene the bench Eduardo Arriagada RehrenA retired military doctor who had already been criminally convicted in 2021 for the murder of broadcaster and communist terrorist Archivaldo Morales through the injection of a poisonous substance, causing a heart attack.

Eduardo Arriagada Rehren According to the court’s decision, he “will be interrogated about his intelligence work based on Clostridium botulinum and will be exposed to the same events for which he was convicted in relation to the victim Archivaldo Morales Villanueva.”

The case initially opened in 2013, following statements by Neruda’s former driver and secretary, Manuel Araya, where he said that the poet was murdered by members of the clinic where he died through an injection, The death was investigated by Pablo Neruda. Reactivated, which brings to light the dark practices that took place during Chile’s dictatorship era.

With EFE, Reuters and local media