Latin America
Related: About this forumFamous poet Pablo Neruda was poisoned after a coup, according to a new report
February 15, 20234:18 PM ET
CARRIE KAHN
International forensic experts delivered a report to justice officials in Chile today regarding the death of the South American country's famous poet Pablo Neruda some 50 years ago. A nephew of Neruda tells NPR that scientists found high levels of poison in the poet's remains.
Scientists from Canada, Denmark and Chile examined bone and tooth samples from Neruda's exhumed body. Neruda died in 1973, just days after the U.S.-backed coup that deposed his friend President Salvador Allende.
Rodolfo Reyes a nephew of the Nobel Prize winning poet who has seen the report says scientists found high levels of the bacterium that can cause botulism poisoning. He says that proves what he has said for 50 years that his uncle was injected with the poison at a hospital immediately after the coup.
Scientists from Canada's McMaster University say they couldn't conclude if the bacterium killed Neruda, but did note political prisoners in Chile were poisoned with the same toxin in the 1980s.
More:
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/15/1157284988/pablo-neruda-poisoned
Judi Lynn
(160,530 posts)FEBRUARY 15, 2023
Was Pablo Neruda poisoned? Study shows covert assassination a possibility in Chilean poet-politician's mysterious death
by Michelle Donovan, McMaster University
Evolutionary geneticists and forensic experts who have spent years analyzing the remains of Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda have added important new information to the case regarding a possible covert assassination.
Over the last two weeks, the scientists, including McMaster researcher Debi Poinar, evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar and other members of the McMaster Ancient DNA laboratory, along with their collaborators in Denmark, have presented their findings to a Chilean tribunal, concluding with a final presentation today to the judge overseeing the hearings.
They have spent years conducting a detailed genetic analysis of bone and tooth samples to look for and reconstruct the genomes of pathogens, specifically Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum), which may have been responsible for Neruda's death. The botulism strain produces one of the deadliest toxins known to mankind, botulinum, and is known to have been used as a biological weapon in several countries.
In 2017, scientists from McMaster, working with a forensic team from the University of Copenhagen, determined Neruda did not die from prostate cancer, which had officially been listed as his cause of death. Further analysis suggested C. botulinum was present in a molar extracted for posthumous examination.
More:
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-pablo-neruda-poisoned-covert-assassination.html
Judi Lynn
(160,530 posts)Issued on: 15/02/2023 - 23:36
2 min
Santiago (AFP) A panel of scientific experts investigating the mysterious death of Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda delivered a report to a Chilean judge on Wednesday.
Judge Paola Plaza will study the report in a bid to determine whether Neruda was poisoned by the regime of former military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Reports in the press this week claimed the report found he had been injected with a deadly substance, and did not die from prostate cancer, as the government had claimed upon his death in 1973, aged 69.
Neruda was a celebrated poet, politician, diplomat and bohemian figure, and also a prominent member of the Chilean communist party.
When he died in a hospital he had been preparing to flee into exile in Mexico to lead the resistance against the Pinochet regime.
More:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230215-experts-deliver-report-into-pablo-neruda-s-mysterious-death-to-chile-judge