Chile exhumes Allende’s body

CHILE yesterday exhumed the remains of former president Salvador Allende, in the hope of finally determining whether he committed suicide or was assassinated during a 1973 coup.

Officials hope a forensic analysis of Allende’s remains will resolve a decades-old controversy over his death in his presidential palace on September 11, 1973 in the midst of the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.

The official version of events was Allende killed himself with an assault rifle as the presidential palace was under attack.

But neither the weapon nor bullets were recovered following his death.