The Wire

A team of forensic specialists will soon begin exhuming the remains of Chilean poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda. The Nobel prize winning poet died only 12 days after socialist President Salvador Allende was ousted in a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet on September 11th 1973. Official records say he died of cancer, but the emergence two years ago of claims he instead met with foul play have prompted an investigation into his death. Many hope a final autopsy will provide closure, as well as shed some light on the first days of a brutal dictatorship that lasted almost 2 decades.