[ELUNIVERSAL] Italian extreme leftist Cesare Battisti, captured on Saturday in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, was handed over to the Italian authorities in that eastern Bolivian city on Sunday to be transferred directly to Italia where He is convicted of homicides during violent actions in the 1970s.
Battisti, 64, was a runaway from last month when he fled Brazil, where he had initially found refuge under the government of leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , AFP said.
"This Italian subject, will be delivered by Interpol Bolivia to Interpol Italia to be transferred on a flight sent by the authorities of Italia," Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Romero announced at a presser earlier this year at the Interpol headquarters. in Santa Cruz, confirming an announcement from Rome.
The head of the Italian Government, Giuseppe Conte, had advanced it shortly before, after having a telephone conversation with the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The plane with police and members of the secret services that the Italian Government sent on the same Sunday to go to find Battisti landed in Santa Cruz shortly after 3:00 pm local (19H00 GMT), the AFP found.
A PUZZLE FOR MORALES
A Bolivian government source had confirmed Sunday his capture by police on a street in Santa Cruz.
Battisti, 64, was nabbed
You have the right to remain silent...
on Saturday at 6:50 pm local with "alcoholic breath," said the Bolivian source close to the investigation.
The Italian was in possession of Brazilian documentation, cell phone and credit card in his name. Since then he has been detained in Interpol premises in Santa Cruz.
Throughout Sunday, the Battisti case was the subject of an intense game of political, judicial and diplomatic ping-pong between Rome, La Paz and Brasilia at the time of defining their fate.
Brazilian Institutional Security Cabinet Minister Augusto Heleno had assured hours ago that, before being sent to Italia, Battisti would make a stop in Brazil.
There, the far-right Bolsonaro government had promised to return it as a "gift" to Italia - where conservatives also rule - ending an era of affinity between leftist governments and activists responsible for acts of violence during the "years of lead "of the cold war.
"THE PICNIC IS OVER"
Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the Brazilian head of state, tweeted on Sunday that "Brazil is no longer a land of bandidos."
"The 'little gift' is coming," he exulted. "My first thought is for the victims of this murderer ... protected by the lefts of half the planet." The picnic is over, "Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted.
"Justice will finally be done for the victims of terrorism," former Italian government chief Paolo Gentiloni reacted more soberly.
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