Pablo Neruda: Chilean poet’s death still shrouded in mystery
Guyana scrambles to make the most of oil wealth
11 Sep 2023
Half a century after he died and 12 years after allegations first surfaced that he was murdered on the orders of the dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet, the death of Chile's most famous poet, Pablo Neruda, remains shrouded in mystery.
By Gideon Long
Half a century after he died and 12 years after allegations first surfaced that he was murdered on the orders of the dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet, the death of Chile's most famous poet, Pablo Neruda, remains shrouded in mystery.
An investigation into it has run for more than a decade and has yet to reach a conclusion. Forensic experts in Canada, Denmark and elsewhere have pored over the poet's remains in a bid to establish what killed him, but have been unable to provide a definitive answer.
Meanwhile, the man who first made the allegation - the poet's former driver and personal assistant, Manuel Araya - himself died in June this year, aged 77, without ever seeing an end to the case.
