Leonardo Bertulazzi, a 74-year-old former member of Italy’s Red Brigades, escaped house arrest in Argentina while awaiting extradition to Italy. (Foto: Instagram)
Leonardo Bertulazzi, a 74-year-old Italian and former member of the Red Brigades, escaped house arrest in Argentina on November 10. The Italian paramilitary group carried out attacks between 1969 and 1980, a period known in Italy as the Years of Lead.
Argentina’s government is offering a reward of 20 million pesos, approximately 72,000 Brazilian reais, for information about Bertulazzi’s whereabouts. He was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet and awaiting extradition to Italy, where he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for terrorism.
According to the newspaper La Nación, Bertulazzi removed the monitoring bracelet and placed it inside a tube filled with pork, along with a blood pressure monitor, in an effort to make it appear that the device was still being worn. He then left his apartment on the fifth floor using a climbing harness and a rope.
A detective investigating the case told La Nación that Bertulazzi climbed onto a roof, used the rope to descend about five meters, jumped into a vacant lot behind the building and climbed over a metal gate to reach the street. The detective’s account described how the bracelet was placed in the pork-filled tube to maintain its temperature.
Bertulazzi was arrested in Argentina in August 2024 after his refugee status was revoked. Italy had sentenced him in 1987. The Red Brigades were responsible for attacks from 1969 to 1980, during Italy’s Years of Lead.
