LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Pablo Neruda: Chilean Government
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Neruda died of prostate cancer in the evening of September 23, 1973, at Santiago's Santa María Clinic. Two days later, his funeral took place surrounded by military machine guns (the military coup d'état against Allende's government took place 12 days before), but nonetheless it turned into the first act of rebellion and public denunciation against Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose dictatorship lasted until 1990.
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A memorable -- if fictional -- portrayal of Neruda on the silver screen came in the Oscar-winning 1994 Italian film Il Postino (The Postman). The film's story centers around a Neruda (Philippe Noiret) forced into exile and granted sanctuary by the Italian government. The uneducated Mario (Massimo Troisi) is appointed as Neruda's personal postman, and the two slowly form a poignant and improbable friendship. A tragic footnote: writer/co-director/star Troisi postponed heart surgery so he could complete the film; the day after filming was complete, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
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As the disturbances of 1973 unfolded, Neruda, then terminally ill with prostate cancer, was devastated by the mounting attacks on the Allende government. The final military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September saw Neruda's hopes for a socialist and democratic Chile literally go up in flames. Shortly thereafter, during a search of the house and grounds at Isla Negra by Chilean armed forces at which he was present, Neruda famously remarked:
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NATURALLY, these details are not to be found in the hagiographic articles that have poured forth in recent weeks on the occasion of the Neruda centenary. A few weeks ago, the London Guardian dramatically evoked Neruda's labors to relocate refugees from the defeated Spanish Republic. Officiating as a Chilean diplomat in Paris, Neruda assisted in hiring a ship, the Winnipeg, to convey 2,000 Spanish leftist exiles to Chile.
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