Santiago: A Chilean judge on Friday ordered
the remains of former president Salvador Allende exhumed for
an investigation into whether he was murdered in a 1973 coup
led by General Augusto Pinochet or took his own life.
Judge Mario Carroza ordered the measure after
receiving a request from Allende's relatives, and the
exhumation should take place in "the second half of May," a
spokesman for the judiciary said to a news agency.
The probe is part of the investigation into hundreds
of human rights complaints against Pinochet's 1973-1990
military dictatorship.
Allende was a socialist narrowly elected to office in
1970. At the time, conservatives in Chile and Washington
feared his attempts to pave a Chilean path toward socialism,
including the nationalisation of US mining interests, could
usher in a pro-Soviet communist government.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, April 16, 2011, 00:38