Ex-Red Brigades Member Escapes Argentina House Arrest

A 74-year-old former member of Italy's Red Brigades has escaped house arrest in Buenos Aires, Argentina's security ministry confirmed Wednesday, according to The Guardian. Leonardo Bertulazzi had been awaiting extradition to Italy to serve a 27-year prison sentence.

Argentine authorities placed Bertulazzi under house arrest in 2024. He was scheduled to be sent to Italy, where he was sentenced in 1987 for joining a subversive association and belonging to an armed group, the Guardian reported.

Who is Leonardo Bertulazzi

Bertulazzi held a senior position in the Red Brigades, the Marxist organization behind attacks in Italy from 1969 to 1980, a period Italians call the "Years of Lead," according to the Guardian. The group's most notorious act was the 1978 kidnapping and killing of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.

Bertulazzi fled Italy and was first arrested by Argentine authorities in 2002. He was released months later and won refugee status in 2004. That status was revoked, and he was rearrested in 2024, the Guardian reported.

How did he get out of house arrest

Security footage showed Bertulazzi dropping from a building onto a public road as traffic passed, according to the Guardian. A detective tracking him told the Argentine newspaper La Nación that Bertulazzi used a harness to rappel down from a fifth-floor apartment.

"First, he removed his electronic ankle monitor and placed it in a tube filled with pork, along with a blood pressure monitor to maintain the temperature. He then climbed on to a roof and, using a rope, lowered himself five meters until he jumped onto a vacant lot," the detective told La Nación, as cited by the Guardian.

The pork and the blood pressure device were apparently meant to mimic body heat and mislead any thermal tracking of the monitor's location.

What is Argentina doing to find him

Argentina's security ministry announced a $13,000 reward Wednesday for information leading to Bertulazzi's recapture, the Guardian reported. The ministry has not said whether Bertulazzi is believed to still be in Argentina or attempting to leave the country.

By the numbers

• 74: Bertulazzi's age.
• 27 years: Prison sentence imposed in Italy in 1987.
• 5 meters: Distance he reportedly rappelled from the roof to a vacant lot, per the detective's account to La Nación.
• $13,000: Reward offered by Argentina's security ministry for information leading to his capture.
• 2002, 2004, 2024: Key dates — his first arrest in Argentina, his grant of refugee status, and his rearrest after that status was revoked.

Why was he under house arrest instead of in jail

The Guardian's report does not detail why Argentine authorities held Bertulazzi under house arrest rather than in custodial detention while his extradition was pending. The arrangement allowed him access to a fifth-floor residence with a balcony, which he used to escape.

What to watch

• Whether Argentine police locate Bertulazzi before any attempted border crossing.
• Whether Italian authorities formally request updated extradition assistance from Argentina's foreign ministry.
• Whether Argentina's security ministry raises the $13,000 reward if the search extends past the first days.
• Whether details emerge on how Bertulazzi obtained the harness and rope used in the escape.
• Whether his earlier refugee status, granted in 2004 and later revoked, becomes a factor in any recapture or renewed asylum claim.

The case has drawn fresh attention to Italy's unresolved prosecutions tied to the Red Brigades, a group whose activity peaked more than four decades ago but whose members have continued to surface in extradition disputes across South America. A separate item connected to that era — a note from Aldo Moro's kidnappers that sold at a controversial auction for €26,000 — was referenced by the Guardian in its coverage of the escape, underscoring continued public interest in the group's history.

No further statement from Italian justice officials was available at the time of the Guardian's report. Argentina's security ministry has not released a timeline for when the search for Bertulazzi might be considered exhausted.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.