Un exbrigadista italiano se descuelga de un quinto piso en Buenos Aires para evitar su extradición

Seventy-four-year-old former Italian Red Brigades member Leonardo Bertulazzi leapt from a fifth-story building in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, escaping house arrest by using a rope and harness to abseil from the height. He had left his electronic ankle monitoring device on a contraption designed to look like a human leg, thus avoiding detection by Argentine authorities.

Argentine police arrested a Uruguayan man and a Salvadoran woman on Friday, suspected of aiding Bertulazzi's escape as they prepared to cross into Uruguay. Bertulazzi had rigged the monitoring tag with a plastic tube, pork, and electrical devices to simulate a real leg's temperature, pressure, and humidity, preventing the Security Ministry's alerts from triggering.

He descended the rear of the San Telmo neighborhood building where he resided, avoiding police at the door. A video captured him reaching the street, jumping a gate, and fleeing. The Argentine government is offering a 20 million peso reward for his capture. Bertulazzi's wife, a German doctor, remains missing. His daughter, Claudia, explained that her father, a mountaineer, chose to flee due to fears that extradition would result in a life sentence without the possibility of a retrial.

His lawyer, Rodolfo Yanzón, described the escape as a "desperate decision" and noted that Bertulazzi had suffered three strokes. Convicted in absentia in Italy, Bertulazzi faced a 27-year sentence for armed band membership and involvement in a 1977 shipowner kidnapping. He fled Italy in 1980, arrived in Argentina in the early 2000s, and was arrested in August 2024 after his protection was withdrawn by the Milei government.

The Supreme Court approved his extradition in July 2025 following Italy's guarantees of a retrial, and his final appeal was dismissed on November 3.