The Ministry of Security of the Nation offers 20 million pesos for information on the whereabouts of Chilean citizen Galvarino Apablaza, who has a national and international arrest warrant for homicide and kidnapping.
According to the Argentine News Agency (NA), the Ministry of Security issued a statement assuring that Apablaza Guerra «is a fugitive from Argentine federal justice and there is an arrest order for his extradition to Chile and to be tried in that country for serious crimes linked to terrorism».
Apablaza, who has been subject to a national and international arrest warrant since last Tuesday, is the leader of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) of Chile and is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of former Chilean Senator Jaime Guzmán and the kidnapping of businessman Cristián Edwards.
The fuguent has been living in Argentina for over two decades, and last Wednesday, on the anniversary of Guzmán's murder, the police were going to detain him for extradition in Moreno, but he was not found and became a fugitive from Justice.
According to Chilean authorities, the coordinated plan envisaged that Apablaza would be transferred by the Police of Investigations of Chile on a non-commercial flight to Santiago, to enter the High Security Prison while the criminal process for the murder of Guzmán and other facts is ongoing.
After the frustrated operation, the Chilean Ministry of the Interior confirmed that the former guerrilla was not found in his Argentine home and formally requested additional information from Buenos Aires, while the Argentine government assured that the security forces continue the search and maintain the exchange with the neighboring authorities.
From Apablaza's defense, the legality of the detention ordered in Argentina was questioned, with the argument that the revocation of refugee status would not be firm and, consequently, the protections of the Convention on the Status of Refugees would remain in force.
