Galvarino Sergio Apablaza Guerra (born November 9, 1950), nicknamed "Comandante Salvador", is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

guerrilla and former member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) ( es, Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez), which opposed the military dictatorship of

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

. He has participated in several highly publicized kidnappings and murders.

Background

Son of Galvarino Apablaza Orrego and Luisa Guerra Urrutia. He was the leader of the Marxist-Leninist group FPMR, founded in 1983 as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh). Its mission was to carry out guerrilla attacks against the Chilean military dictatorship of

. It is named after Manuel Rodriguez, considered a hero in the war of the independence of Chile against Spain. After the fall of Pinochet's regime and the return to democracy in 1989, the organization broke up into two factions: the FPMR Party, which gave up the armed fight, and the FPMR-Autonomous, which continued armed activities. Some of the FPMR most recent attacks include the explosion of a building in which the American company Flour Daniel has offices (August 1994), an attempted bombing of a

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

restaurant in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

(September 1993), an explosion near the Chinese Embassy in Santiago (May 1993), and a bombing of a meetinghouse of the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

in Santiago (December 1992). Apablaza participated in the kidnapping of the Brazilian advertising executive Washington Olivetto in 2001, according to Brazilian police authorities.

Charges

He has been charged by the Chilean judge

Hugo Dolmestch Hugo Enrique Dolmestch Urra (born 1 December 1944) is a Chilean lawyer, judge, and teacher. He was a Minister of the Supreme Court of Chile, and was its President from 2016 to 2018. Family and studies Hugo Dolmestch was born in Parral in 1944, ...

for the following crimes: the kidnapping of Cristian Edwards (son of Agustín Edwards Eastman, owner of the newspaper ''

El Mercurio ''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in t ...

'') and the assassination of Senator

Jaime Guzmán Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz (June 28, 1946 – April 1, 1991) was a Chilean constitutional law professor, speechwriter and member and doctrinal founder of the conservative Independent Democrat Union party. In the 1960s he opposed the Universit ...

. Galvarino Apablaza was arrested on November 29, 2004 in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Chilean authorities requested his expulsion so he could be tried in Chile. He immediately asked for

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

with the support of several

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

organizations, but his situation is still unclear. The Argentine supreme court originally approved his extradition to Chile during September 201
1
On September 30, 2010 the government of Argentina granted Apablaza political asylum following a meeting of Conare, the National Commission for Refugees. Apablaza is married to Paula Chain, who happens to be a member of President Cristina Kirchner press relations office at Government House (Casa Rosada) and usually accompanies the Argentine president whenever she travels overseas, the most recent trip was to Germany.Chile to insist on extradition from Argentina of terrorist accused of crimes in democracy
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Exile in Argentina

Apablaza was accused of being the intellectual author of the murder of

and the kidnapping of Cristián Edwards. At the request of the Chilean Justice, an Interpol arrest warrant was issued against him in June 2004. No concrete news of him had been heard until November 29, 2004, when in a special operation by the Argentine police, he was arrested in the town of

Moreno Moreno may refer to: Places Argentina *Moreno (Buenos Aires Metro), a station on Line C of the Buenos Aires Metro *Moreno, Buenos Aires, a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina *Moreno Department, a depatnent of Santiago del Estero Province, A ...

, of

Buenos Aires province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, where he lived under the false name of "Héctor Daniel Mondaca" for several years with his partner, the Chilean journalist Paula Chahín, who was employed in the Secretariat of Media of the Presidency, and his three sons of Argentine nationality.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apablaza, Galvarino 1950 births Living people People from Santiago Communist Party of Chile politicians Chilean revolutionaries Chilean Marxists Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front