MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fugitive Chilean guerrilla captured in Bolivia

Muñoz Hoffman was the last fugitive of the four guerrillas who staged the legendary “Flight of Justice” in 1996

Former Chilean guerrilla fighter Pablo Muñoz Hoffman was arrested Monday in La Paz, Bolivia, after 29 years at large following a movie-style jailbreak using a helicopter. Together with Mauricio Hernández Norambuena, Ricardo Palma Salamanca, and Patricio Ortiz Montenegro, all members of the now-defunct Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), they staged the so-called “Flight of Justice.”

Interpol Bolivia Chief Colonel Juan Carlos Bazoalto said that the fugitive was captured near the Chilean consulate in La Paz and was to be handed over to Chilean authorities.

“The subject escaped from a maximum security prison in Chile, using a helicopter, which kept him at large for decades. Thanks to the coordinated work and efforts of the Interpol Bolivia team, we were able to locate him and apprehend him,” Bazoalto underlined.

Muñoz Hoffman was convicted in his country for the murder of Senator Jaime Guzmán and was linked to other serious crimes, such as the murder of Colonel Luis Fontaine and a failed attempt on the life of General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, a member of the military junta that carried out the 1973 coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet.

On Dec. 30, 1996, Muñoz Hoffman boarded a blue helicopter from the prison yard and vanished into thin air. He had been believed to have escaped to Argentina. In 2018 rumors set his whereabouts in the United States.

After his detention, the fugitive admitted to having entered the country through an unauthorized border point. According to Chilean media, the Consulate in La Paz alerted the Bolivian Police about Muñoz Hoffman's presence “in the vicinity” of that office. “Once we were alerted by the consulate's security police, we went to the consulate, intercepted him, and managed to find out the identity of this person,” Bazoalto explained. The former guerrilla had a red notice on him in the Interpol system.

Palma lived in Mexico under a false identity for more than 20 years, until 2017 when he was spotted and moved to France, where he was set free after denying his extradition.

Ortiz was captured in Switzerland in 1997, but a few months later he was granted political asylum and has resided there ever since. In addition, his jail time in Chile is already over.

While in Brazil, Hernández was arrested in the early 2000s for the kidnapping of local businessman Washington Olivetto and extradited to Chile in 2019.