The mysterious death of Pablo Neruda

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In late 1973, Chile was in turmoil. General Augusto Pinochet had led a military coup deposing the socialist president Salvador Allende who was now dead.

The army was rounding up leftists; torturing, imprisoning and killing them.

In the capital Santiago, the country’s best-known poet Pablo Neruda was lying in a hospital bed. He was 69 and had cancer.

As a prominent member of the Communist Party his life was in danger. He had to get out.

With him was his driver and personal assistant Manuel Araya who spoke to Gideon Long.

(Photo : The poet in 1963. Credit: Angelo Cozzi/Mondadori/Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult?
0:06.0	What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are?
0:10.0	I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas.
0:16.4	Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth.
0:23.0	Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003.
0:27.0	Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:39.7	Gideon Long. It's Sunday, September the 23rd, 1973, and in the Chilean capital Santiago,
0:47.4	Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Nauruda is lying in a hospital bed.
0:52.1	He's 69 years old and has prostate cancer.
0:59.0	Outside his country is in turmoil. Just 12 days earlier, the armed forces led by General
1:05.3	Augusto Pinochet had staged a coup. Neruda's friend, the socialist president
1:10.3	Salvador Aiende, has been deposed and is dead.
1:14.6	The military is rounding up leftists, detaining, torturing and killing them.
1:20.0	Major Ramirez, the officer in charge, told them to start running.
1:26.1	All the troops had machine guns.
1:28.8	The troops fired.
1:30.6	Some of the prisoners were literally ripped into by the bullets.
1:34.0	As a leading figure in the Communist Party,
1:39.0	Nauruda is in danger.
1:41.0	He's due to fly into exile the next day.
1:44.0	With him at the hospital that weekend was Manuel Araya,
1:50.0	Nauruda's driver and personal assistant.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.