From left to right, up to down: PaN-NGO - Manuel Araya - Pablo Neruda - Eduardo Contreras
The result of these skills that undoubtedly change the course of history occurs more than 44 years after the death of Neruda and more than 6 years since on May 31, 2011 we filed this complaint filed by the Communist Party of Chile. It was signed by President Guillermo Tellier and by parliamentarians Lautaro Carmona and Hugo Gutiérrez and we sponsor it along with colleagues Pedro Piña, sadly deceased, and Julia Urquieta.
Finally, it is important to highlight the role of the press and journalists in the events that give shape and life to the "Neruda case". Because everything begins months before the lawsuit, the Mexican magazine "Proceso" in a note by the Chilean journalist Francisco Marín published statements by Mr. Manuel Araya, who had been the last driver of Neruda.
Until then, what was installed was that the poet had died as a result of the cancer he suffered, and by the time of the event, the first days of the coup, it was particularly difficult to have elements, antecedents or witnesses that showed different facts that gave rise to a judicial investigation.
After knowing this publication, we began with Pedro Piña and other colleagues the study of the facts, including long conversations with Araya himself, the journalist Marín and the doctor treating the poet in the coastal region and with other people credible of the place. We also contacted the engineer Don Gonzalo Martínez Corbalá who was the ambassador of Mexico that would take Neruda to the Aztec country on Sunday,
September 24 and whom I met during my exile in Mexico and with several other people close to the case.
Only once we were convinced of the seriousness of the complaint, was the criminal complaint filed with the judge, Mr. Mario Carroza. Soon afterwards, lawyers Rodolfo Reyes, nephew of Neruda and Elizabeth Flores, both on behalf of the families of our Nobel Prize, joined the proceedings.
The case was also sponsored by the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, which allowed the participation of outstanding legal professionals whose contribution has been substantial.
The presence of all of them only reiterates on one hand the historical importance of Neruda and, on the other, the solvency and seriousness of the investigation. They are the factors that opened the possibility of the scientific support that makes news today. At the same time, it is fair to remember the contribution of people such as Dr. Cristian Orrego, son of the great Chilean musician Juan Orrego Salas, or other outstanding national doctors such as Dr. Gloria Ramírez, Luis Fornazzari or Dr. Luis Soto, who died. we were shown the possibility that the progressive development of forensic medical science could at last discover the whole truth that we were looking for.
Special mention should be made of Eugenio Ortega, also deceased, who was the husband of Mrs. Carmen Frei and who approached to propose that together we reviewed the judicial records both in the case of his father-in-law, former President Frei Montalva, as in the case of Neruda. Although different years, it was the same clinic and some of the same physicians and, as all seems to indicate, using the same methods.
Moreover, through these curious coincidences of life during my time in Uruguay, I even met a Dominican diplomat who had been a prisoner at the National Stadium and had shared a cell with Manuel Araya; he, without knowing that I was a lawyer in that process, or in what state the trial was, spontaneously informed us of what Manuel told him during those days of 73 without possibility of being heard.
What's next? Undoubtedly deepen the research on the new finding of toxicants as was already done with Staphylococcus aureus. Only now it can be faster since we have other cases of poisoning and, precisely because of these judicial processes, we now also know of the existence of secret laboratories of the army, confessed by themselves in court.
That is to say, it is not just the chemist Berrios, or Oyarzún or Michael Townley or that strange "Doctor Price" spoken by one of the main suspects such as dr. Sergio Draper.
The investigation will continue, but the step forward that has given the historical truth in our country with the expert report in the Neruda case has been immense.
It is also an encouraging incentive for all the relatives of the thousands and thousands of victims of the dictatorship who have been fighting for truth and justice for so many years.
Eduardo Contreras.
SIN Sistema informativo Nerudiano
Florilegio: www.nerudavive.cl