Arrest of Pedro Antonio Narbondo Mato in Brazil

Brazilian Federal Police arrested 85-year-old Pedro Antonio Narbondo Mato, a former Uruguayan Army officer, in Santana do Livramento. Narbondo, who used the codename ‘El Burro’ while serving in the Defense Information Service (SID), was previously sentenced by Italian courts to life imprisonment for his involvement in the 1976 kidnapping, torture, and murder of four Italian citizens in Argentina.

These actions were part of Operation Condor, a clandestine campaign by South American military dictatorships to eliminate political opponents. Although Narbondo was recognized as a natural-born Brazilian citizen in 2003, which prevents his extradition to Italy, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ruled that his sentence must be served in Brazil. To comply with local laws, his life sentence was commuted to 30 years of imprisonment.

Prior to the arrest, Narbondo was under judicial supervision, including passport seizure and an electronic ankle monitor. While his defense sought protection under Brazil’s Amnesty Law, the STJ rejected these arguments, citing Inter-American Court of Human Rights standards which dictate that domestic amnesty cannot prevent the punishment of grave human rights violations such as torture and extrajudicial executions.