Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died of poisoning and not of cancer as was believed, says his nephew

New revelations about the death of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda may have come to light. Rodolfo Reyes, nephew of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, now says he believes his uncle was poisoned. He says the international panel of experts that analyzed the clostridium botulinum bacterium found in his body in 2017 was endogenous or from another origin.

The conclusion of the experts, transmited by the relative of the writer to the Efe agency this Monday, would confirm the thesis that the substance "was injected as a biological weapon." If true, it would most likely mean Neruda would have died of poisoning and not of cancer, as was thought for decades.

On the subject, Reyes also commented to the Spanish newspaper El País: “I can say it because I know the reports. I say this, as a lawyer and nephew, with a lot of responsibility, because the judge can't point it out yet because she has to have all the information."

The nephew, speaking on behalf of the Neruda family added: “This is what we were waiting for, because the 2017 panel had already found clostridium botulinum. But it was not known if it was endogenous or exogenous. That is, if it was internal or external. And now it was proven that it was endogenous and that it was injected or placed”.

The author of Twenty Love Poems and a Desperate Song and Canto General died on September 23, 1973 at the San María Clinic in Santiago de Chile, 12 days after the events that overthrew the government of then-President Salvador Allende.

#BREAKING | International experts will reveal that the bacteria found in the remains of Chilean Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda "was in his body at the time of death," which would show that he was "poisoned," his family told EFE exclusively. pic.twitter.com/vR3IIp1gii

— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) February 13, 2023