Chilean poet's remains to be exhumed The Pablo Neruda Foundation says the remains of the famed Chilean poet will be exhumed. A CHILEAN judge has ordered the remains of famed poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda exhumed as part of an investigation into his death. The leftist poet, who died 12 days after the 1973 military coup that ousted socialist president Salvador Allende and brought Augusto Pinochet to power, was long believed to have died of cancer. But officials last year started looking into the possibility he was murdered by agents of the Pinochet regime, as claimed by Neruda's driver. No date for the exhumation has been set. Neruda is buried next to his wife Matilde Urrutia in Isla Negra, 120 kilometres west of the capital Santiago. The Pablo Neruda Foundation said it learned a few days ago from judge Mario Carroza of his decision to have the remains of the poet exhumed.