Arrested Marxist leader Apablaza charged in Chile

Sergio Galvarino Apablaza,aged 54, nicknamed "Comandante Salvador", has been charged by the Chilean judge Hugo Dolmestch for the following crimes: the kidnapping of Cristian Edwards(son of Agustin Edwards, owner of the newspaper El Mercurio) and the assassination of Senator Jaime Guzman Errazuriz.

Galvarino Apablaza is the leader of the Marxist group FPMR - Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. FPMR was founded in 1983 and became the armed wing of the Chilean Communist Party to carry out terrorist attacks against the Chilean militarist government of the dictator Augusto Pinochet. Its name is a tribute for Manuel Rodriguez Erdoiza, considered a Chilean hero in the war of the independence of Chile against Spain.

After the fall of Pinochet's government and the return to democracy in 1989 in Chile the organization broke up into two factions: the FPMR Party, which gave up the armed fight, and the FPMR-Dissidents, which continued terrorist 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 in Santiago (September 1993), an explosion near the Chinese Embassy in Santiago (May 1993), and a bombing of a Mormon church in Santiago (December 1992).

Galvarino Apablaza has been arrested in November 29 in Argentina. Chilean authorities request now the expulsion of Apablaza so he can be tried in Chile. Apablaza and some left-wing organizations want Argentina give him political asylum.

Apablaza is also suspected of participating to the kidnapping of the Brazilian advertising executive Washington Olivetto in 2001, according to Brazilian police authorities.