Ricardo Cavallo

Who is Ricardo Cavallo?

Ricardo Miguel Cavallo is a retired Argentine naval lieutenant commander. Under the name Miguel Angel Cavallo and pseudonym "Serpico", he served as an officer of the National Reorganization Process, the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. As a member of the secret G-322 operations, he was charged with committing kidnapping, torture and murder of hundreds of political dissidents.

He left the country after retiring from the Navy. After living for decades in Mexico, Cavallo was arrested and extradited to Spain in 2003, indicted under the principle of universal jurisdiction by judge Baltasar Garzon on charges of genocide and terrorism. It was the first time that a person had been extradited from one country to another for human rights crimes committed in a third. After changes in Argentina and renewal of prosecution of his case there, in early 2008 Cavallo was extradited to his homeland. He was convicted at trial of numerous crimes and in 2011 was sentenced to life in prison.