Former Red Brigades Member Escapes House Arrest in Argentina

A 74-year-old Italian fugitive has managed to evade authorities while under house arrest in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Leonardo Bertulazzi, a former operative for the far-left Red Brigades militant group, escaped from a fifth-floor apartment by using a harness to abseil from a balcony. The incident has drawn significant attention to the ongoing legal efforts surrounding a high-profile kidnapping case. While many people search for information regarding a kidnapping in Argentina, this specific case involves a man who had spent decades as a fugitive before his recent re-arrest.

Bertulazzi was being monitored by the Argentine ministry of security via an electronic ankle tag designed to track both movement and body temperature. To facilitate his escape, he tampered with the device, manipulating it so that it continued to report his body temperature even after he had removed it. Authorities only became suspicious when they noticed the device had remained stationary for an extended period. Upon entering the apartment, officials found the monitor left behind, but the apartment was empty.

Leonardo Bertulazzi escaped house arrest in Argentina by abseiling from a balcony using a rigged ankle monitor.

Due to his history with the Red Brigades and his known expertise in bomb-making, local police initially called in explosives experts out of concern that the apartment might have been booby-trapped. However, investigators determined that the tampering was limited to the ankle monitor, which had been modified specifically to prevent an alarm trigger during his departure.

Bertulazzi’s legal troubles date back to the 1977 abduction of naval engineer Pietro Costa, whom the Red Brigades held for 81 days. The ransom funds from that crime were reportedly used to finance the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Bertulazzi had been living in Argentina since 2002, initially entering the country with a false passport before being granted refugee status in 2004. His legal protection was revoked following the inauguration of President Javier Milei in 2024, leading to his re-arrest and the subsequent start of extradition proceedings to Italy.

Why it matters

The escape of a convicted militant from the Red Brigades marks a significant setback for international justice efforts. Bertulazzi’s pending extradition to Italy was considered imminent, and his flight complicates the closure of a case linked to some of the most violent episodes in 1970s Italian political history.