Santiago de Chile: The remains of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda will be subjected to a DNA test to determine if his death was caused by natural causes or he was a victim of Augusto Pinochet`s dictatorship.

Chilean Judge Mario Carroza said the Legal Medical Service was asked to identify the corpse. If the results are not positive, the DNA tests will be conducted on the bones of Neruda`s parents buried in the southern part of the country.

The poet`s remains were exhumed on April 8.

The DNA test is being conducted in response to a criminal lawsuit by the Communist Party of Chile, an organisation of which Neruda was a member. He was also a member of its central committee, senator and candidate for the presidency of the republic.

The investigations began in 2001, after Neruda`s driver Manuel Araya revealed that a strange injection was administered to the winner of the 1971 Nobel Peace Price, while he was at the clinic Santa Maria.

Neruda suffered from cancer and died on September 23, 1973, 12 days after the coup against President Salvador Allende.

Prensa Latina

PTI