MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina offers reward for fugitive Chilean ex-guerrilla Apablaza ahead of Kast visit

The manhunt comes days before Chilean President José Antonio Kast's first official visit to Buenos Aires

Argentina's government on Friday offered a reward of 20 million pesos — roughly $14,000 — for information leading to the capture of Galvarino Apablaza, former leader of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), wanted by Chilean courts as the alleged mastermind of the 1991 assassination of Senator Jaime Guzmán and the kidnapping of businessman Cristián Edwards.

The measure, announced by Argentina's Security Ministry, follows the failure of a police operation carried out on Wednesday — the 35th anniversary of Guzmán's murder. Officers arrived at Apablaza's home in Moreno, on the western outskirts of Buenos Aires, but did not find him. His attorney, Rodolfo Yanzón, told El País that police broke down the door. “Apablaza was not there, because he has no restrictions on leaving or moving,” he said.

Recompensa de $20.000.000 para quien aporte información que permita localizar y detener al ciudadano chileno Galvarino Apablaza Guerra, sobre quien pesa un pedido de captura nacional e internacional por homicidio y secuestro.

Si contás con datos que puedan ayudar a encontrarlo,… pic.twitter.com/JKDdkuFM6F

— Ministerio de Seguridad Nacional (@MinSeguridad_Ar) April 3, 2026

The arrest warrant was signed by Judge María Servini, who is standing in for the court's regular judge, Ariel Lijo, currently on leave. Apablaza's defense team has challenged the legality of the order, arguing that his refugee status has not been definitively resolved, despite a federal appeals court confirming its revocation in February. If the courts strip that protection, Chile “will have to request a new extradition,” Yanzón said, calling the operation a political gesture: “Since Mr. Kast is coming to Argentina on Monday, the government wanted to give him a gift.”

The manhunt comes days before Chilean President José Antonio Kast's first official visit to Buenos Aires, scheduled for Monday. Guzmán, the founder of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), is one of Kast's principal ideological references. Chile's Interior Minister, Claudio Alvarado, formally asked Argentina's Foreign Ministry to make “the greatest efforts” to locate the former guerrilla fighter, according to EFE.

Apablaza, 75, has lived in Argentina since 1993. In 2010, under Cristina Kirchner's government, he was granted political refugee status — a designation later revoked during Mauricio Macri's presidency. That same year, Argentina's Supreme Court had authorized his extradition to Chile, but the process was frozen by successive legal challenges.

Known within the FPMR as Comandante Salvador, Apablaza is accused of ordering Guzmán's killing. The gunmen who carried out the assassination, Ricardo Palma Salamanca and Raúl Escobar Poblete, escaped from Santiago's high-security prison by helicopter in 1996. Palma received political asylum in France in 2018. Escobar is serving a 60-year sentence in Mexico for a kidnapping committed in 2017.