74-Year-Old Rappels Out of Milei's House Arrest

A 74-year-old man lowered himself down a fifth-floor wall on a harness and rope on Tuesday, and by Wednesday Argentina's police were still hunting him. Leonardo Bertulazzi, a former member of Italy's far-left Red Brigades, slipped out of house arrest in Argentina, and the Security Ministry is now dangling a reward of 20 million pesos, about $13,000, for anyone who helps put him back in custody.

The state's own officials described the getaway to The Associated Press in careful detail. Bertulazzi dropped onto the second-floor terrace of a neighbouring house, climbed down to a first-floor terrace, crossed a vacant lot and went over a gate into the street. Nobody noticed he was gone. He'd tampered with his electronic ankle monitor, the police said, placing it inside a device with a thermal blanket to hold its temperature, along with grease or animal fat, apparently to keep moisture in. Explosives specialists were called in to examine the contraption, which had been made to resemble an explosive.

So the leash kept reporting a warm body in a fifth-floor apartment while the body itself walked off. A nationwide search followed.

Who Has the Power

The machinery chasing him is a long chain of institutions passing one man between them. Italian courts convicted him in absentia in the 1980s of "terrorism-related" crimes, adding up to a combined 27-year sentence, according to Argentine court records. Argentine authorities say he belonged to the Red Brigades' Genoa branch and was involved in the logistics of the 1978 kidnapping and killing of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, which happened 48 years ago.

Argentina arrested him in Buenos Aires in November 2002. In 2003, an Argentine judge rejected Italy's extradition request because Italian law did not guarantee him a new trial after a conviction in absentia. In 2004, he was granted refugee status. For twenty years, that was the settled answer of one state's courts to another state's demand.

Then the wind shifted. Argentina revoked his refugee status in 2024 under right-wing President Javier Milei and re-arrested him that August. The Supreme Court approved his extradition last year. Nothing about the man changed between 2004 and 2024. The government did.

What They're Calling "Order"

Wanda Ferro, an undersecretary in Italy's Interior Ministry, put the matter plainly on local television. She said Argentine police were responsible for ensuring he was handed over. "I am certain that every effort will be made," she said, adding that she hoped the extradition could take place "very quickly" if Bertulazzi is recaptured.

Notice what that sentence assumes: that a person's fate is a parcel to be delivered between ministries, and that the only open question is how fast the handoff happens. A refugee protection that one administration grants and another cancels was never protection. It was a loan.

The Man at the Bottom of the Pile

Here is what the base facts leave us with. A 74-year-old faces a sentence handed down in absentia, in a system where, as that 2003 Argentine ruling noted, Italian law did not guarantee a new trial. He was serving the wait for extradition under house arrest, wired to a monitor. He chose a rope instead.

The police say he is still on the run. The reward stands at 20 million pesos. Somewhere in Argentina, a harness hangs empty on a fifth-floor wall, and two governments are waiting for a phone call.