MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bullrich vows that Argentina's government will capture former guerrilla Apablaza for extradition to Chile

Apablaza, a former member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, is identified by Chilean justice as the mastermind of the assassination of Senator Jaime Guzmán, architect of the 1980 Constitution

Argentine senator and former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said in Santiago on Tuesday that Javier Milei's government maintains “the firm determination” to locate Chilean former guerrilla Galvarino Sergio Apablaza, on the run since April 1 in Argentine territory, in order to extradite him to Chile. “If he is in Argentina, we are going to find him. That is the commitment of the Argentine president, it is the commitment of the government,” Bullrich told local media during her visit to the Andean country, where she will meet with Chilean President José Antonio Kast.

Apablaza, a former member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), is identified by Chilean justice as the mastermind of the assassination of Senator Jaime Guzmán, founder of the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and architect of the 1980 Constitution, on April 1, 1991, after the return to democracy. He is also charged with the kidnapping of businessman Cristián Edwards, carried out the same year. The 75-year-old former guerrilla received political asylum in Argentina in 2010, a decision the Milei government reversed in its first year in office after amending the regulations of the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE) and revoking his refugee status. In March, Argentina's Supreme Court confirmed the extradition.

The police operation deployed on April 1 to detain Apablaza failed when officers did not find him at his residence. Bullrich attributed the escape to “networks with certain political sectors” that the former guerrilla “wove over many years” in Argentina, and to the legal impossibility of keeping him under surveillance while the judicial proceeding regarding his asylum was still under way. “In that time he evidently took advantage of that circumstance, that existing vacuum, to leave,” she said. The former minister confirmed that “the extradition has already been granted, all that remains is to find him,” and stressed: “I am convinced that the Argentine security forces will find him.” The Argentine government maintains a standing reward for information leading to his whereabouts.

The former guerrilla's defence, led by attorney Rodolfo Yanzón, filed a petition with the United Nations Committee against Torture seeking to halt the extradition. The lawyer argued that the proceedings “respond to political considerations,” that they “anticipate the criminalisation” of his client, and that the case “lacks due process guarantees.” Yanzón further maintained that Apablaza had no restriction preventing him from leaving his home on the day of the operation.

Bullrich's visit to Santiago is part of a broader bilateral cooperation agenda on security. The senator took part in the conference “The Other Perspective on Geopolitics” and is scheduled to hold a meeting with Kast at La Moneda Palace focused on combating drug trafficking and organised crime. The former minister has become a reference for Chile's ruling sector for her management of the Argentine city of Rosario, where she significantly reduced the activity of gangs linked to drug trafficking. The Apablaza case has been considered a priority by President Kast since taking office in March, and was one of the central topics of the bilateral meeting he held with Milei in Buenos Aires shortly after news of the escape became public.