Uruguayan colonel arrested in Brazil for dictatorship-era crimes

Brazilian Federal Police arrested 85-year-old former Uruguayan Army officer Pedro Antonio Narbondo Mato in Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul. Narbondo was sentenced by Italian courts to life imprisonment for his role in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of four Italian citizens in Argentina in 1976.

The crimes were part of Operation Condor, a clandestine coordination between South American military dictatorships during the 1970s to eliminate political opponents. Because Narbondo was recognized as a natural-born Brazilian citizen in 2003, the Brazilian Constitution prohibits his extradition to Italy. Consequently, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) approved the transfer of his sentence to be served in Brazil, converting the life sentence to 30 years of imprisonment to comply with local laws.

Prior to his arrest, Narbondo was under judicial supervision, including the use of an electronic ankle monitor and passport seizure, due to flight risks. While his defense argued that Brazil's Amnesty Law should protect him from prosecution for political crimes, the STJ ruled that, following Inter-American Court of Human Rights jurisprudence, domestic laws cannot prevent the investigation and punishment of grave human rights violations.