Remains of Pablo Neruda to be exhumed April

The remains of famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who could have been killed by agents of Pinochet, will be exhumed in the first half of April.

The information was made public by Judge Mario Carrosa, in charge of the investigation into the death of the winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature.

According to the official version, acknowledged by the poet’s family, Neruda died on September 23, 1973 in a clinic in Santiago from cancer. This happened just 12 days after the military coup which removed from power his friend, the lawfully elected socialist president Salvador Allende.

The poet’s funeral became the first protest against the Pinochet regime. It is assumed that Neruda’s death was advantageous to the established dictatorship because, even in exile, he would have represented a threat to the new authorities.