Pablo Neruda gives an interview in Paris on October 21, 1971.Laurent Rebours (AP)
The Chilean Communist Party has submitted a request to reopen the summary of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature Pablo Neruda, who died on September 23, 1973 in the Santa María Clinic in Santiago. 12 days after the coup under Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) that overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973). The author suffered from metastatic prostate cancer. However, in 2011, a judicial investigation was launched after his former driver, Manuel Araya, claimed he had been poisoned by vaccination with a substance he claimed was a lethal injection during his hospital stay.
The driver, who died in June 2023, was the one who took the poet and his wife Matilde Urrutia to the Santa María clinic from their home in Isla Negra, a coastal town about 100 kilometers from Santiago. His statement was the only one in the case to claim that Pablo Neruda, whose name was Neftalí Reyes, had been murdered. As a result of his statement, which came after an interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, the Communist Party and the poet’s nephew, Rodolfo Reyes, filed a complaint.
The case was investigated for twelve years by two judges, first by Mario Carroza, who left the case in 2018 after being promoted to the Supreme Court, and then by Paola Plaza, who completed the summary on September 25, when she completed all the investigations checked completed. trial and without indictment.
In 2013, Carroza ordered the exhumation of Neruda’s body. And in the same year, a group of Chilean scientists confirmed that the cause of death was cancer. But in 2017, according to new findings, a second group of scientists from different countries found the presence of Clostridium botolinium in one of the poet’s molars. Given the differences, in February 2023, a third team of specialists from Canada, Denmark and Chile re-ran tests to determine whether Clostridium botolinium is of endogenous or exogenous origin to determine whether the bacterium was in the poet’s body at the time of his death or if he later entered the place where he was buried. This is important information for Judge Plaza’s decision on the circumstances of her death, whether due to her illness or homicide, which is now being delayed following the Communist Party’s appeal.
The deadline for appeal was 15 calendar days, and on that day the Communist Party, to which the poet belonged, filed an appeal against the closure of the summary. In a press conference this morning, Lautaro Carmona, President of the Community, pointed out that “we as a party have the political, moral, ethical and legal obligation to do what an institution should do when issues of historical importance are ignored “Interpretation.” at the end.” “It will show our determination as evidence of perseverance, as evidence that we must never give up or give up in the fight for just causes.”
Carmona said that Neruda “could have survived this cancer for a long time” and that “all evidence shows that the cause of his death was related and unrelated to the disease he was suffering from.” “It was not cancer, there is a death certificate was issued showing this cause. There is a fatal error involving an incorrect document. “That is why our legal team demands that the responsibilities of all those who carried out the procedures within the clinic be specified.”
Carmona refers to Neruda’s death certificate, which was questioned during the trial handled by Judge Carroza because it indicated that the poet’s death was due to “cancexia cancer.” However, after a subsequent examination of his leather belt, which still bore the mark where he had fastened it, it was concluded that he had not lost weight due to advanced cancer, but rather that he had lost weight at the time of his death possibly weighed about 90 kg kilos.
The Communist Party’s lawyer in the case, Miguel Luna, said that in the request to reopen the summary “we have requested specific procedures and one of them is related to the investigation of the people who participated in the crime” for which ““We have provided new records of who may be directly related to the administration of the injection.”
Luna said that Neruda’s case was similar to the death of communist sympathizer Eduardo Morales, who was murdered in November 1973 in the city of San Fernando in the O’Higgins region, about 140 kilometers from Santiago, after he was arrested for substance proved fatal.
Lawyer Luna recalled that in the Neruda case, the Human Rights Department of the Investigative Police (PDI) interviewed all the doctors who worked at the Santa María Clinic while the poet was in the hospital. “But later one of them, Eduardo Arriagada Rehren, was convicted in a case that also dealt with human rights violations,” for which he demanded his testimony.
According to a 2021 ruling by the Court of Appeal of Santiago – the Supreme Court’s ruling is still pending – in the Eduardo Morales case, “the toxicological examination of the victim’s remains revealed the presence of pentothal and persantine, proving the involvement of third parties.” in his death,” and overturned the verdict against the doctor Eduardo Arriagada Rehren.
After the presentation of the Communist Party and Neruda’s nephew, who had requested the carrying out of more than 15 trials, Judge Paola Paola must decide whether to accept or reject the reopening of the summary. If this is not the case, the parties can appeal to the Santiago Court of Appeal.