Poet’s Body Exhumed: Was Pablo Neruda Poisoned

The body of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda has been exhumed in Isla Negra, Chile, after claims that he was injected with poison that killed him in 1973. His remains were dug up in Isla Negra where he was buried with his wife Matilde Urritia. It was thought he had died from prostate cancer but his former driver Manuel Araya has disputed that for decades. Araya believes Neruda had poison injected into his stomach when he visited a clinic.

Neruda was a supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende who was toppled in a military coup and brought in General Pinochet. He decided to flee the country but went to the Santa Maria clinic for a check-up. Araya says he tried to get medicine to him when the poet complained of feeling sick after an injection but was beaten up, shot and taken away.

Neruda was best known for his collection “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair” published in 1924.

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