celebrity.estateAn EGRET.LAW propertyWorld map3D timeline
Home / Literature and art / Chile dug up Pablo Neruda 40 years after the 1973 coup, and scientists found botulism…
Case file s248 · Literature and art · 1973
See 1973 on the timelineSee it in 3D
1973
Pablo Neruda, escritor y poeta entregando papeles a un hombre
Pablo Neruda, escritor y poeta entregando papeles a un hombre. Unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
23 September 1973
Place
Santiago, Chile
Field
poet, Nobel laureate · Literature and writing on the timeline
Legal tradition
Chilean civil law · Civil law
Historical event
Pinochet's coup of 11 September 1973
Literature and artBodies, bones and burialsMurder and sudden deathPostwarLatin AmericaChile

Chile dug up Pablo Neruda 40 years after the 1973 coup, and scientists found botulism bacteria in his tooth

Neruda died in a Santiago clinic 12 days after the military coup†. The regime's version was prostate cancer. His family and Chile's Communist Party said he was killed by state agents. On 8 April 2013 his remains were exhumed from his grave at Isla Negra, where they had lain since 1992. In 2017 an international expert panel found Clostridium botulinum in one of his molars and rejected the cancer version. In February 2023 the panel delivered its final report. Experts from McMaster University in Canada and the University of Copenhagen concluded the bacterium had not leaked into the body from the coffin. His nephew Rodolfo Reyes said: "Neruda was murdered." Two panel members said it was present at the time of his death "but we still don't know why"; they could reconstruct only about a third of its genome. In December 2023 a judge refused to reopen the case. On 20 February 2024 a Santiago appeals court reversed her, saying the investigation was not exhausted. It ordered a handwriting analysis of the death certificate, a meta-analysis of the foreign lab results, and testimony from a Clostridium botulinum expert. No court has ruled on the cause of death†.

What the law took from it

When the state writes the death certificate, the body is the family's last evidence, and it can be examined 50 years later.

Sources
  1. jurist.orgPress
  2. NBC NewsPress
  3. letemps.chPress
  4. eldinamo.clPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Chile dug up Pablo Neruda 40 years after the 1973 coup, and scientists found botulism bacteria in his tooth,” story s248, https://www.celebrity.estate/chile-dug-up-pablo-neruda-40-1973, updated 30 October 2026.

Related cases

Each one shares a person, a kind of fight, a subject, a period or a place with this case. The line under each headline says which.

Che Guevara: Ernesto Guevara. Retrato. ca.19451967 · La Higuera and Vallegrande, BoliviaBolivian officers cut off Che Guevara's hands in 1967, a minister had them smuggled toward Cuba in a jar, and his body was found under an airstrip 30 years laterShared: bodies, bones and burials; murder and sudden death; 6 years apart; also Latin AmericaErnesto "Che" Guevara was captured in Bolivia and killed at La Higuera on 9 October 1967. President René Barrientos wanted proof of identity and asked Argentina for experts to compare fingerprints with police records.pagina12.com.ar and 3 moreSid Vicious: Sid Vicious 1978 (cropped)1979 · 63 Bank Street, Greenwich Village, New YorkSid Vicious asked to be buried beside Nancy Spungen; her mother said no, and his mother scattered his ashes on the grave anywayShared: bodies, bones and burials; murder and sudden death; 6 years apartSid Vicious, born Simon John Ritchie, was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who was found stabbed at the Chelsea Hotel in October 1978. Virgin Records paid his legal fees.The Independent and 3 moreSuicide of Christine Chubbuck: Christine Chubbuck 1974 (HQ)1974 · Sarasota, FloridaChristine Chubbuck shot herself on live television in 1974, and her station's tape has been held privately sinceShared: bodies, bones and burials; murder and sudden death; 1 year apartOn 15 July 1974 Christine Chubbuck, a reporter and host at WXLT-TV in Sarasota, spoke on camera about an attempted suicide after a film reel failed. She shot herself during Suncoast Digest.aol.com and 2 moreRobert Maxwell: Robert Maxwell 1989 (3x4 cropped 2)1991 · Atlantic Ocean, off the Canary IslandsPublisher Robert Maxwell went overboard from his yacht, and his sons inherited companies that had used the staff pension fundsShared: bodies, bones and burials; murder and sudden death; 18 years apartMaxwell was last in contact with the crew of his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, at 4:25 a.m. He was reported missing that morning, and his naked body was recovered from the sea.The New York Times and 4 moreErwin Rommel: Erwin-Rommel-19411944 · In a car between Herrlingen and Wippingen, WürttembergRommel took poison on 14 October 1944 in exchange for a state funeral and pensions for his familyShared: bodies, bones and burials; murder and sudden death; 29 years apartFrom October 1943 Erwin Rommel's family lived at Wippinger Steige 13 in Herrlingen. Until 1939 the house had belonged to a Jewish boarding school run by Hugo Rosenthal.ifz-muenchen.de and 3 moreFederico García Lorca: Lorca (1914)1936 · Alfacar, near Granada, SpainFederico García Lorca was shot with three other men in August 1936, and a 2009 dig at the supposed grave in Alfacar found no remainsShared: bodies, bones and burials; murder and sudden death; also Literature and artFederico García Lorca was 38 when he was shot at dawn on 18 August 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War.foroporlamemoria.info and 4 more

Where this case sits

Literature and artBodies, bones and burialsMurder and sudden deathPostwarLatin AmericaCivil lawChile