Chile court orders remains of poet Pabolo Neruda exhumed

SANTIAGO (AFP) - A Chilean judge has ordered the remains of poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda exhumed as part of an investigation into his death, the foundation that manages his literary legacy said.

The leftist poet, who died 12 days after the 1973 military coup that ousted the socialist president Salvador Allende and brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, was long believed to have died of prostate cancer.

But officials in 2011 started looking into the possibility he was poisoned by agents of the Pinochet regime, as claimed by Mr Neruda's driver.

No date for the exhumation has been set.