Hvordan døde den legendariske socialist? For egen hånd eller skød militæret ham?
The remains of Chile’s former President Salvador Allende are due to be exhumed (gravet op) Monday in a bid to determine the cause of the former leader`s death, BBC online reports.
The official version is that Allende shot himself in the presidential palace as General Augusto Pinochet’s forces closed in on him during the 1973 coup.
But as his death was never formally investigated, some of his supporters continue to believe he was killed by soldiers and the military covered up the crime.
The coup led to 17 years of military rule under General Pinochet and more than 3.000 political opponents were killed or “disappeared” by the military and thousands more were imprisoned and tortured.
The Allende case is one of 726 alleged rights abuses that investigators are looking into. With the Allende family’s blessing, a judge has set up a panel of Chilean and foreign forensic experts (retsmedicinere) that will try to clarify the circumstances surrounding his death.
An official post-mortem report found he committed suicide using a rifle given to him by his friend, Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Allende’s doctor confirmed that conclusion and it was accepted by his family.
Allende, who was 65, died in La Moneda presidential palace on 11 September 1973 as it was being bombed by air force jets and attacked by soldiers, BBC notes.
