Red Brigades Fugitive's Fifth-Floor Escape Exposes Argentina's Custody Failures on the Eve of Extradition

A 74-year-old convicted terrorist defeated house arrest with a rope, a thermal blanket, and animal fat. The real story is the institutional chain that let a high-profile extradition target walk.

Leonardo Bertulazzi, a 74-year-old former member of Italy's Red Brigades, escaped house arrest in Buenos Aires on Tuesday by rappelling from a fifth-floor apartment with a rope and harness, descending to a second-floor terrace, crossing a vacant lot, and climbing over a gate to the street. Argentine police confirmed he was still at large as of Wednesday.

The escape was not improvised. Bertulazzi tampered with his electronic ankle monitor by placing it inside a device containing a thermal blanket to maintain body temperature and grease or animal fat to simulate moisture — a counterfeit that delayed authorities from noticing his absence. Explosives specialists later examined the device, which had been constructed to resemble an explosive, presumably to deter casual inspection. Bertulazzi was convicted in absentia by Italian courts in the 1980s for terrorism-related crimes, receiving a combined 27-year sentence. He belonged to the Genoa branch of the Red Brigades and was linked to the logistics of the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. The Red Brigades conducted a wave of kidnappings and killings during Italy's "Years of Lead" in the 1970s and 1980s. His legal history in Argentina is a study in institutional friction. First arrested in Buenos Aires in November 2002, an Argentine judge rejected Italy's extradition request in 2003 because Italian law did not guarantee a retrial after conviction in absentia. He was granted refugee status in 2004. That status was revoked in 2024 under President Javier Milei's government, and Bertulazzi was re-arrested that August. Argentina's Supreme Court approved his extradition last year. After more than two decades of legal proceedings and a Supreme Court ruling clearing the final obstacle, the custody apparatus failed at the last mile. Argentina's Security Ministry has offered a reward of 20 million pesos — approximately $13,000 — for information leading to his capture. Wanda Ferro, an undersecretary in Italy's Interior Ministry, stated that Argentine police were responsible for ensuring the handover and expressed confidence that "every effort will be made." The episode raises blunt questions about Argentina's capacity to execute high-profile custodial obligations. House arrest for a fugitive with a 27-year sentence, decades of evasion experience, and nothing left to lose was always a fragile arrangement. The ankle-monitor spoofing — thermal blankets, grease, a fake explosive casing — suggests planning and possibly outside assistance, though authorities have not confirmed accomplices. For Italy, the escape is a diplomatic embarrassment that validates longstanding frustration with the pace of South American extradition processes. For Milei's government, which reversed 20 years of sheltering Bertulazzi by revoking his refugee status, the escape undermines the credibility of its own security posture at a moment when it was supposed to be delivering results.