The bacterium, responsible for botulism, was found in 2017 in a Neruda tooth by another panel of experts, who dismissed the version of the dictatorship and rejected that the cause of death was advanced prostate cancer that had afflicted him since 1969.
It remains to resolve unknowns in the Neruda case
Clostridium botulinum is a bacillus that is usually found in soil, but experts from McMaster University (Canada) and the University of Copenhagen concluded in the report to be presented this week that “did not leak into Neruda’s corpse from within or around his coffin”, but that he already had it before he died.
There is no doubt that Neruda was killed
The unknown remains how and who introduced the botulinum toxin into the body of the author of “Twenty love poems and a song of despair.”
“Neruda’s fatal bullet was found, which he had in his body. Who shot it? That will be seen soon, but there is no doubt that Neruda was killed. Intervention directly from third parties”, emphasized Reyes.
They support the theory of the chauffeur
A large part of Neruda’s family supports the version of Manuel Araya, his former driver, who maintains that there was poisoning through an injection in the abdomen by a secret agent of the regime who posed as a doctor at the Santa María Clinic in Santiago.
“Neruda was not seriously ill, he just had cancer. He was walking with difficulty, he was in pain, but he was not ready to die, ”he told EFE Elizabeth Flores, family lawyer, who is acting as a plaintiff in the case initiated in 2011 with the Communist Party, in which Neruda was a member.