MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CFK agrees to visit Chile after October 23 presidential election

The two leaders also addressed reciprocal extradition requests

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was invited to visit Chile during a meeting she held in New York City with her Chilean counterpart Sebastián Piñera on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman said the president will visit Chile after the October 23 elections and before the end of her administration.

The encounter was held in the midst of diplomatic problems generated by the case of the Argentine Judge Otilio Romano, who fled to Chile following on an investigation that links him with an alleged complicity with the “Dirty War” from 1976/1983, when Argentina was ruled by a military junta.

Argentine officials have since petitioned for his extradition, which is currently still being argued in Chilean courts.

To address the issue, members of the Chilean ruling Alianza political coalition have urged Piñera to use Romano as a bargaining chip to negotiate for Argentina’s extradition of Chilean Marxist guerrilla leader Galvarino Apablaza.

Apablaza immediately sought political asylum in Argentina following his 2004 arrest for the 1991 assassination of Independent Democratic Union (UDI) Senator Jaime Guzmán. The Chilean government has since petitioned, unsuccessfully, that he be extradited to face trial in Chile’s courts.

Recently, however, Apablaza’s name was included in the latest version of the Valech Report, the list of names of Chileans who suffered human rights violations under the Pinochet regime. The inclusion of his name has weakened the Piñera administration’s case against him and consequently complicated extradition efforts.

Timerman also said that Argentina thanked Chile for the support over the claim for the sovereignty of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.