Buenos Aires, Argentina – This week, Brazil officially requested the extradition of 63 individuals allegedly residing in Argentina who are wanted for crimes related to the January 8, 2023 attacks on its government headquarters.
For months there have been reports of Brazilians who had crossed the border illegally into Argentina to seek asylum, but Argentina’s government has remained rather tight-lipped about asylum requests.
With the official extradition request, the question now is how will Argentina react, given that the country is led by Bolsonaro ally President Javier Milei.
The January 8 attacks on Brazil’s government headquarters
Following former far-right President Bolsonaro’s loss to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in elections months earlier, on January 8, 2023, thousands of protesters descended on the capital Brasília and breached the government headquarters, which houses Congress, the Supreme Court and the official office of the president, causing millions of dollars in damage.
Brazil’s courts immediately began investigating the attack, arresting both high-level government officials as well as rioters who breached the capital that day.
To date, there have been at least 226 convictions related to the attacks, including for crimes of armed criminal association, violent abolition of democracy, attempted coup d’état, qualified damage, and destruction of protected property.
The Supreme Court has also handed down sentences to individuals which vary depending on the gravity of the crime, with the most severe being 17 years in prison.
Perhaps in part due to the lengthy punishment, Brazil’s Federal Police say that around 180 people facing justice are unaccounted for and have potentially fled to neighboring Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Seeking asylum in Argentina
Over the past months, Argentina Reports has spoken with multiple Brazilians in Buenos Aires seeking asylum. Some believe that Argentina’s potentially sympathetic government, and current laws, could protect them from being extradited.
The Federal Police estimate that about 180 individuals are currently at large, with some potentially hiding in Uruguay and Paraguay after entering these countries illegally, which also share borders with Brazil.
Symon Castro, a Brazilian fugitive who is seeking asylum in Buenos Aires, told Argentina Reports that “people who are in Argentina with an open asylum process cannot be forced to return to Brazil, so we are safe here,” referring to Argentine migration law.
According to the migration law, “No refugee, including an asylum seeker whose refugee status determination procedure is still pending, may be expelled, returned or extradited to another [country] when there are reasonable grounds to believe that his or her right to life, liberty and security of person, including the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, would be in danger.”
Castro also seemed accepting if a decision is made that is not in his favor. “If the Argentine judges determine that we have to return or that our request for political asylum was rejected, so be it,” he added. “But it seems very difficult for that to happen because Argentina is a democratic country.”
Notably, Castro also was mindful that an extradition request like this could lead to tensions between Brazil and Argentina, saying, “This could be a diplomatic war.”
Argentina’s reaction to asylum seekers
For months, Argentina remained nearly silent about the asylum requests. Only after prodding from the media did they officially confirm that they have received over 100 refugee petitions from Brazilians, but they did not say whether any were related to the January 8 cases.
Argentina’s migration office has reported a total of 181 asylum requests from Brazilian citizens between December 2023 and September 2024. None of the asylum requests have been fully approved, according to a public information request filed by this reporter on Wednesday, but these people do have refugee status in Argentina.
Following the extradition request from Brazil, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry would have received a list of names so that the Argentine courts can begin legal proceedings related to the fugitives.
If Argentine judges agree to an individual extradition request, the country’s security forces will be in charge of locating, arresting and returning the person to Brazil – a process which could take many months or even years.
An advisor inside the Casa Rosada (Argentina’s presidential office), who spoke on background because they are not authorized to address the matter, told this reporter, that “we [the government] are not under any legal pressure.” The person also said that in the case of escalating political tensions between Brazil and Argentina, the government would respect the decision of Argentina’s justice system and would not intervene in extraditions.
