An Argentine man alleged to have been a government torturer during the country’s military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 has been arrested in Brazil and could face genocide charges, police said Wednesday.
Former policeman Roberto Oscar Gonzalez, 64, was on Interpol’s wanted list for alleged kidnapping, torture and genocide in neighboring Argentina and had been hunted for a decade, Brazilian federal police said in a statement.
He was arrested in the southern Brazilian city of Viamao on Tuesday.
Another wanted former policeman from Argentina died three weeks ago in Viamao, Brazilian daily O Globo reported.
Among Gonzalez’s alleged victims was a journalist, Rodolfo Walsh, who was killed a year after the 1976 military coup and whose body was never found.
His list of alleged criminal activity, however, stretches up through 1997, police say. He has been detained pending extradition proceedings.
Some 30,000 people are believed to have been killed or disappeared during Argentina’s military rule, human rights groups say.
