Pablo Neruda, 50 years after the coup, and the death of a popular Chilean poet hespissing at a hospital

Scientists have concluded that renowned poet Pablo Neruda, a member of the Chilean communist party, might have had a toxic bacterium in his system when he died.

The nephew of a poet who won the prestigious award says scientists found high levels of a bacterium that can cause botulism poisoning. He said his uncle was injected with poison at a hospital immediately after the coup and that this proof proves his case for 50 years.

The scientist’s report was delivered Wednesday to the court that is investigating the case. It is difficult for her to read it yet as it is very long. It is now in what she said is the study phase, but declined to give a timeline for next steps in the case.

They are hoping for a criminal investigation into his death. The man in a hospital who planned to leave after the coup and take his bags with him to Mexico had told his driver to go and take him to the airport. From Mexico, he planned to lead opposition to Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, the leader of the military junta that took over Chile. Five hours passed before the man was dead.

Is Neruda poisoned? Dr. Hendrik Poinar, a scientist at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Some of the researchers who helped with the investigation, however, say the evidence is far from conclusive. There is nothing in the science that proves he was poisoned, says Hendrik Poinar, a molecular geneticist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He says that it is neither a ” closed door” nor a “smoking gun”.

Two years later, the judge organized a second panel to search for any evidence of biological poisons among the remains. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen found a piece of Clostridium botulinum in Neruda’s teeth.

The director of the Barcelona’s Natural Sciences Museum who was not involved in the studies agrees. He says that it’s not certain if thebacterial penetrated in the teeth after death.