Neruda associate claims Chilean poet killed by Pinochet

[Judi Lynn]

Last updated: 3 hours ago
Neruda associate claims Chilean poet killed by Pinochet
AFP
(8 hours ago) Today

SANTIAGO: A longtime associate of Pablo Neruda has caused a media stir claiming that the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet was assassinated by the regime of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The Pablo Neruda Foundation still insists the poet died on September 23, 1973, from prostate cancer aggravated by emotional distress, after seeing Pinochet overthrow Neruda’s friend Salvador Allende in a coup 12 days earlier.

But Manuel Araya, Neruda’s secretary, personal assistant and driver, has alleged in recent interviews that the poet was assassinated by the new military regime, which feared he would go into exile as a high-profile dissident.

“Pinochet was a murderer. He killed Neruda so he wouldn’t leave the country, because he was an intellectual that (Pinochet) did not want to have as an opponent,” Araya, 65, told AFP on Wednesday.

More:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/12/neruda-associate-claims-chilean-poet-killed-by-pinochet.html

[EFerrari]

1. The thought of this is so painful, I had to gear up to read the story. n/t

[flamingdem]

2. I will read it later, too much nt

[rabs]

3. Lots more detail here (Spanish)

http://fredalvarez.blogspot.com/2011/05/pablo-neruda-fue-asesinado.html


I read this a few days ago. Original story was published in Mexican magazine Progress.

Seems exhumation for testing for poison would be necessary to prove/disprove.

Note that his death happened in Clinica Santa Maria, the same clinic where Eduardo Frei Sr. was poisoned years later.

(Edit typo)