Salman Rushdie, the target of an Iranian death sentence, arrived Thursday to attend a book fair in Santiago, but Chile’s government canceled his appearance for security reasons.

Matias Rivas, a spokesman for Rushdie’s local publishing house, Editorial Sudamericana, told The Associated Press that the cancellation was ordered by the Interior minister “apparently for security reasons.”

The late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran sentenced Rushdie to death, calling his book “The Satanic Verses” a blasphemy against Islam.