More than a serialized novel, everything resembles the season finale of a series that forces one to wait a prudential time for the mysteries to be revealed. The group of international experts in charge of specifying the reasons for the death of pablo neruda delivered its conclusions to Judge Paola Plaza. However, the report that came into the hands of the magistrate by the coordinator of the group of specialists, Gloria Ramírez, has not been disclosed as expected. She only resounded in Chile the opinion of the poet’s family who accessed its content and again assured that the author of Canto General he was poisoned. As reported, the text, which includes annexes, bibliographies and other documents, would only be officially known on March 7.
Neruda’s nephew Rodolfo Reyes, who had access to the documents due to his status as a plaintiff in the case, reiterated in this context that the forensic medicine and DNA specialists reached the same conclusion that the family shares. “We know now that the ‘clostridium botulinum’ would not have to have been in the skeleton of Neruda. What does this mean? That he was assassinated, there was intervention by State agents.” Reyes was confident that this Wednesday what had happened almost half a century ago, after two postponements, would finally be known. “We are satisfied and sad, because now we know that they killed him . Previously, one assumed things, but this investigation revealed the truth: Neruda was killed.”
Plaza explained the reason for the suspense. “A decision of the court cannot be based solely and exclusively on an element of evidence (…). The report now enters the study phase and review”. The judge assured that although the parties involved in the case “have access to the summary” it is “inappropriate” for her to rule.” The court, she stressed, “must respect the principle of impartiality.”
the twist of history
The name of the poet had special weight in the Chile that led to the tragic coup of September 11, 1973. Neruda was an intellectual closely linked to the Communist Party, one of the parties that supported the Government of Salvador Allende, of whom he was also a personal friend. Twelve days after the assault on power by the military, the Nobel Prize for Literature himself lost his life at the Santa María Clinic in Santiago. That happened a few hours before leaving for Mexico as an exile.
From that moment, the dictatorship spoke of a death due to the advanced stage of prostate cancer. That version began to be refuted in 2011 based on the testimony of a close associate of Neruda, the driver Manuel Araya. According to his words, an intelligence agent from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship posed as a doctor at the clinic and injected him with the bacteria. “Neruda himself called (his wife) Matilde (Urrutia) when she was in Isla Negra and told her to come back immediately, that they had given her an injection in the gusta (stomach), that it was on fire and was burning inside” . Six years later, Clostridium botulinum was found in Neruda’s tooth by a previous panel of experts.
The poet’s own nephew seemed to speak as if he were part of the plot of a television series that must inform viewers how the story that has been left on hold continues. “He found Neruda’s deadly bullet, which he had in his body. Who shot it? That will be seen soon but there is no doubt that Neruda was killed. Intervention directly from third parties,” he said about the bacterium.
known practice
The only certainty that Chileans have at this point does not come from this cause but from their own historical experience. The Pinochet dictatorship had resorted to poisoning as a way to eliminate adversaries. He sarin gas it was used to kill the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, in July 1976, as well as Army Corporal Manuel Leyton and the director of Foreign Protocol, Carlos Osorio, among other people.
The colonel Manuel Contrerasfounder of the intelligence apparatus, had under his command Eugenio Berrios, a soldier in charge of this type of task. Berrios, who was assassinated in Uruguay in 1991, even plotted how to poison the La Plata river when Chile came close to war with Argentina over a dispute over several southern islands. The death of the former president Eduardo Frei Montalva, in 1981, when he was preparing to lead the opposition to the regime, he bears the mark of suspicion of a crime of this nature. A court upheld the murder and the Court of Appeals dismissed it in 2021.