Nearly half a century after José Ignacio Fernández Guaza disappeared into thin air after being suspected of killing a student in Spain, two journalists tracked him down in Argentina.
Like the discoveries of Nazi war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann who hid in South America, the suspected killer was discovered living under a false identity decades later.
At first, Guaza denied he was the chief suspect in the shooting of Arturo Ruíz at a left-wing rally in Madrid in 1977.
But when the 76-year-old agreed to meet two journalists from the Spanish newspaper El País, he claimed that he had shot the 19-year-old and said he had no regrets.
“It was truly shocking,” Joaquin Gil, one of the El País journalists, told VOA.
The killing took place in the years after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco, at a time when far-right factions tried to stop the country moving from dictatorship to democracy by killing left-wing supporters.
Gil and his colleague José María Irujo spent five months tracking down Guaza.
“He had a false identity, he had no property in his name, no telephone in his name. He was a ghost, so it was very difficult. But as a journalist it was amazing (to discover him),” Gil told VOA.
Gil did not want to disclose how they had discovered the whereabouts of Guaza and the newspaper did not publish details of the false identity.
But their reporting skills enabled them to track him to a small town outside Buenos Aires. When they called him by telephone, he denied he was Guaza. But then he admitted he was the fugitive and arranged to meet the journalists in a park.
Guaza arrived with four bodyguards and told the reporters: “Ruiz threw a stone. I got the pistol and shot him in the heart. Regrets? You are talking to a person who has never regretted anything.”
Guaza said he always carried a gun and told the El Pais team that after leaving his country, he lived under a false identity shielded by the security forces in Spain at that time and other Latin American dictatorships.
When he escaped to Argentina, he said he was helped to hide by the then-military dictatorship led by Jorge Videla.
He was able to move freely around South America, shielded in Paraguay and Chile by the dictators Alfredo Stroessner and Augusto Pinochet.
In a shocking claim, Guaza told the newspaper he met officials from Interpol in Paraguay and claimed that they said they knew about his false identity but took no action. He gave no date for the meeting.
“It was shocking that he could escape from Interpol, but you have to understand that Paraguay at the time was a fascist dictatorship,” said Gil.
The journalist said that when Guaza told them he always carried a gun he felt uneasy.
“We met in a park, and it was a little disturbing. He had a gun and he had four bodyguards. We don’t know if the bodyguards had guns, but probably,” he said.
“He has been a fugitive for 46 years. I think he was waiting for this visit. The most shocking thing was that we asked him if he was the killer, he said yes. We asked if he had any regrets. He said no.”
Gil said he hopes that Guaza’s apparent admission could lead to extradition.
But the case presents legal challenges.
The 30-year statute of limitations under Spanish law has expired and just before Guaza was located, Spain’s High Court, which investigates terrorism and fraud cases, ruled that it could not use the 2022 Democratic Memory law to extradite him as there was no proof that Ruiz’s killing was linked to Francoist groups.
However, that law may allow for legal action against members of far-right organizations linked to Franco’s regime.
During his interview with El País, Guaza boasted of his links to far-right organizations.
“He has admitted that he was the killer of Diaz and he was part of a right-wing structure of the dictatorship of General Franco,” said Gil. Because of that, the Democratic Memory law, “could maybe start the way to extradite him. Argentina is a country which allows extradition. I think it could happen.”
Richard Danbury, who directs the MA in investigative journalism program at City University of London, said the work of newspapers like El País proved the worth of investigative journalism in attaining justice.
“Investigative journalism is hard and expensive and too often these days is met with a cynical response. But it remains a hugely important tool for holding the guilty to account, shining a light into dark corners, and promoting those values on which fair and just societies rest,” he told VOA.
“The work of the investigators at El País is a great example of this, holding out the prospect of those who have suffered finally attaining justice."
Guaza told the journalists that before they unearthed him, only three people knew his location.
For Gil, the story is a double-edged sword.
"In terms of journalism, it was amazing. In terms of, him telling me 'I am the killer, I have no regrets' … it was very shocking."
