Chilean writer Luis dies of coronavirus

Best-selling Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda has died of Covid-19 in Spain at the age of 70.

He spent six weeks in hospital in Oviedo after developing symptoms following a trip to a literary festival in Portugal.

Sepúlveda became internationally known after the publication of his novel The Old Man Who Read Love Stories in 1988.

A socialist, he was imprisoned in Chile under the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet before going into exile.

He was one of the many left-wing writers, activists and intellectuals targeted by the right-wing general who overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende in 1973.

Sepúlveda was jailed in 1973 for treason and spent two-and-a-half years in prison, a period he later wrote about in Madness of Pinochet and other articles.

He was freed as a result of pressure from rights group Amnesty International and lived in hiding in Chile for a year before being arrested again and sent into exile.

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