Updated 04:47 AM EDT, Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Chilean Court Decides to Return Pablo Neruda's Remains to His Tomb Following Assassination Probe

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The remains of Chilean poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda will soon be back to its tomb after a state judge decided it was time for him to come home.

According to TelSUR, Chilean Judge Mario Carroza ruled that Neruda's remains should be returned to his tomb in Isla Negra, a small town located about 120 kilometers from Santiago.

The judge decided that the Nobel Laureate would be returned home since "all forensic examinations have been completed."

"There is only one pending analysis remaining to be done and it is genomic one to identify possible viruses or bacterias that could have caused his death at the clinic where he died," he stated.

Furthermore, a report from Fox News Latino cited an order from the judge indicating that "bone samples (be kept) in reserve" per recommendations from international expert Angel Carrecedo.

Neruda, a poet known to his family as Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, will be going back to his home town on April 26.

Three years ago, his remains were exhumed to determine whether or not he was assassinated during the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990.

The Nobel Laureate's death on September 23, 1973 has been stained with malice since it happened, just 12 days after Pinochet overthrew the country's Socialist government under then-president Salvador Allende via a deadly coup that killed about 3,200 people.

According to Tico Times, the Chilean poet and diplomat had been planning to leave the country for Mexico to lead those who opposed Pinochet's regime, despite his illness. He died at the age of 69.

His death records initially stated that he died of advanced prostate cancer, but doubt arouse that he was actually poisoned. This is why his remains were exhumed -- in an effort to be examined again, per order from judge Carroza.

In November, a statement from the Chilean Interior Ministry cited by TelSUR revealed that it is "clearly possible and highly likely that a third party" may be responsible for the poet's death.

After tests were made, Spanish forensic experts from the University of Murcía who examined the remains found massive amounts of Staphylococcus aureus infection, a bacteria-caused contamination that does not naturally occur, per a statement from Chilean Interior Ministry cited by Tico Times.

This solidified suspicions of the poet's relatives back in October that he was indeed murdered by injecting a highly aggressive, penicillin-resistant bacterium.

More detailed test results are due for release next month.

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