Tests are being carried out on the remains of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who died in 1973, after claims that he was poisoned by Chile’s then-ruler, General Pinochet.

Neruda, whose remains were exhumed yesterday from his grave at Isla Negra, on Chile’s Pacific coast, was a Nobel prize winner, a member of the Communist party and a staunch supporter of ousted Chilean president Salvador Allende. Neruda died aged 69, just 12 days after Pinochet's coup against Allende. His family maintains that he died of cancer.

Neruda's funeral procession was delayed by Pinochet's regime for two months, but when it finally took place 10,000 people marched through Santiago, chanting "Neruda presente" – "Neruda is with us" – and linking his name with the dead president. Neruda had been awarded the Nobel prize for literature two years earlier.

In 2011, Chile started investigating allegations by Neruda’s former driver, Manuel Araya, that the poet had been poisoned. Mr Araya says Neruda called him from hospital, and told him he was feeling sick after having been given an injection in the stomach. Neruda had planned to go into exile in Mexico

The allegations are backed by the Chilean Communist party. A nephew of Neruda, Rodolfo Reyes, said the family wanted to know the truth “regardless of whether he died of natural causes or was murdered”.