Neruda was suffering from cancer when he died of heart failure in hospital at the age of 69 on September 23, 1973 about a fortnight after the overthrow of Salvador Allende by military forces led by Pinochet. Many people today believe Neruda may have been poisoned by Pinochet's secret police, DINA, who feared Neruda's prominence and influence in creating an opposition to the military dictatorship. Neruda had a number of siblings, he had a sister that was stillborn when he was 3 or 4 years old and from his father's second marriage, a stepbrother, Ricardo Reyes Candia, and a stepsister, Laura Reyes Candia, - both children from his "mother" Trinidad Candia and his father DonReyes. 