Former Italian guerrilla member escapes house arrest in Buenos Aires

Italian national Leonardo Bertulazzi, a former member of the now defunct armed guerrilla group Red Brigades, escaped from house arrest in Argentina and is currently on the run after removing his electric ankle monitor using pork meat and a tensiometer to make it seem like he was still wearing it.

The Red Brigades is a disbanded Marxist–Leninist armed guerrilla group that operated in Italy in the 1970s and 80s. It was behind the kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978.

In 1985, Bertulazzi was sentenced in absentia in his home country to 27 years in prison for the kidnapping of businessman Pietro Costa in 1977, as well as unlawful association and possession and use of war weapons.

The man had been a fugitive since 1980. In 2002, he was arrested in Argentina due to an international warrant calling for his capture, but was released on the grounds that he had not been able to defend his case in Italy due to being sentenced in absentia.

In 2004 he obtained refugee status in Argentina. However, he was arrested in Buenos Aires in August 2024 after the government of President Javier Milei revoked that protection.

Authorities are now looking for Bertulazzi, who escaped his fifth-floor apartment in the neighborhood of San Telmo on Tuesday night. Per request of Italy, the Argentine Supreme Court had approved his extradition for him to comply with his conviction in his home country in July 2025, but he went on the run before he could be sent back to Europe.

How did Bertulazzi escape The only known images of Bertulazzi’s escape is a CCTV video that shows him falling to the ground after seemingly climbing a wall, getting up and waiting a few minutes on the sidewalk to recover. After that, he simply walked away.

Police discovered that the man used an ingenious, albeit somewhat bizarre, method to take off his ankle monitor without making alarms set off: he wrapped a piece of pork meat around a metal tube, attached a tensiometer, and put the contraption inside the ankle monitor, covering everything with a heated blanket to keep the temperature. The goal was to temporarily make it seem like it was his leg.

Then, Bertulazzi climbed down the building from his apartment on the fifth floor using a harness for personal protection. He reached the bottom and climbed over a garage gate, falling to the ground. The plan was a success.

Bertulazzi chose good timing: his escape happened in the middle of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Argentina, meaning that security efforts were mostly put on the widespread operation for the pontiff’s activities.

The former guerrilla member managed to elude the control of the Federal Police officers that were tasked with controlling that he complied with the house arrest. The Federal Penitentiary Service was in charge of monitoring his device.

Un terrorista italiano se fugó durante la visita del Papa. Leonardo Bertulazzi cumplía prisión domiciliaria con tobillera en San Telmo. Engañó al dispositivo con una falsa pierna y dos churrascos de bondiola con un tensiómetro. Saltó al vacío con un arnés. Lo buscan en Corrientes pic.twitter.com/pPH8ECu3nX

— Diego G (@gabrielediego) November 12, 2026 The investigation Police detected his absence after a shift change. Authorities then activated the appropriate protocol, issued an urgent arrest warrant, and launched operations to try to locate him.

Bertulazzi had already tried to remove his ankle monitor two weeks ago, when an alarm was set off after the device detected suspicious manipulation. This prompted police to request the judiciary order him to be transferred to jail.

The Security Ministry is now offering a AR$20 million (US$12,700) reward for people who provide information that can lead to locating and arresting Bertulazzi. People with useful tips should call 134.

The ministry is also auditing the electronic ankle device system and verifying whether there were any technical failures, although they said no issues have been detected so far.

Meanwhile, Judge María Romilda Servini also ordered searches in addresses of people who may know his whereabouts.