International experts will reveal this Wednesday that the bacterium clostridium botulinum found in the remains of the Chilean Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda “was in his body at the time of death”. The finding would scientifically demonstrate the suspicion that the poet was “poisoned” twelve days following the 1973 military coup.
“We now know that the clostridium botulinum it would not have to have been in Neruda’s skeleton. What does this mean? That Neruda was assassinated, there was an intervention in 1973 by state agents”, Rodolfo Reyes, nephew of a famous writer, told the press.
The bacterium, responsible for botulism, was found in 2017 in a Neruda tooth by another panel of experts, who dismissed the version of the dictatorship and rejected that the cause of death was advanced prostate cancer that had afflicted him since 1969.
Almost 50 years following the death of the Chilean Nobel Prize winner, the mystery of his death might be hours away from being solved: an international panel of experts It will finally reveal if the cause was the advanced prostate cancer he was suffering from or if the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who days before had seized power, had something to do with it.
About fifteen experts from Canada, Denmark or the United States, meeting in Santiago since January 24, participated in the study that tried to clarify the origin of the microorganism found.
It is worth clarifying that this bacillus is generally found in the ground and the key is to determine if the sample taken from the corpse was altered in a laboratory and later inoculated, which would demonstrate the intervention of third parties.
“An amount incompatible with life was found (…) We are finally going to know the truth regarding his death”, occurred twelve days following the coup that overthrew the government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973, said Rodolfo Reyes, nephew of the Nobel Prize-winning poet, days ago.
“We are at the gates to put an end to a transcendental investigation”, admitted Mario Carroza, who until 2020 led the cause of the most famous poet in Chile.
The investigation began in 2011, following members of the Communist Party (PC), where the writer and Chilean senator was a member, will file a lawsuit questioning the version of death from prostate cancer. The hypothesis arises from the testimony of Manuel Araya, the poet’s former driver, who maintained that he had been poisoned with chemicals. Already in 2017, a group of international forensic investigators had concluded that Neruda did not die of canceras his death certificate stated, and reported the discovery of the bacteria in the molar of the poet, whose teeth were exhumed from his garden in Isla Negra.
With information from EFE
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