Last night Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) approved the extradition of Argentine Claudio Vallejos for crimes against humanity committed during the last dictatorship.
Vallejos, known as “el Gordo”, was arrested for fraud in January 2011 in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. He was later identified by members of human rights organizations, and his extradition was subsequently requested in February under the “megacausa ESMA”, a series of lawsuits related to crimes committed during the military dictatorship of 1976-83.
Vallejos, who was in the Army at the time of the last dictatorship, is accused by the Argentine justice system of torture, homicide, kidnapping, and forced disappearing of persons, much of which is alleged to have been carried out at the infamous Naval School of Mechanics (ESMA).
In a 1986 interview with the magazine Senhor, Vallejos admitted to participating in the kidnapping of Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Junior, whom had been “confused with a subversive”. Cerqueira, he says, was later killed at ESMA by Alfredo Aztiz, one of the most feared agents of the dictatorship.
STF minister Gilmar Mendes announced that Vallejos will be extradited to Argentina on the condition that he is tried only under the kidnapping charge, and that the Argentine government commutes an eventual life sentence to a maximum sentence of 30 years, in keeping with Brazilian legislation. He also announced that the extradition will not take place until the conclusion of Vallejo’s trial for fraud.
Brazilian law has no counterpart for “forced disappearing of persons,” one of the crimes Vallejos is charged with in Argentina. It is estimated that during the last dictatorship, up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared.
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