The Associated Press says:

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile's government is acknowledging that Nobel-prize winning poet Pablo Neruda might have been killed after the 1973 coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power.

The Interior Ministry released a statement Thursday amid press reports that Neruda might not have died of cancer.

The statement, in fact, says it's "clearly possible and highly probable" that the poet was murdered. Hopefully, at least, morbid curiosity will drive new fans to Neruda's work. He's certainly been in the news a lot recently; Washington's own Copper Canyon Press revealed in July that they're publishing a new volume of "rediscovered" Neruda poems early next year. All this attention might mean Neruda will top the bestseller list again. Dictators of the world will never learn that you can't kill a poet's work — by killing the person, you only give their words more power.