BRASILIA—Brazil's military played only a small role in a secret pact among Latin American military regimes to hunt down opponents and it would not have deported suspects had it known they would be killed, a former army colonel said Friday.
The claim follows demands for an inquiry after an Italian judge issued arrest warrants for 146 South Americans accused of involvement in "Operation Condor"—an accord among military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s to repress their political opponents.
Jarbas Passarinho, a senior government official during Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship, played down Brazil's deportation of suspects to neighboring countries.
"I'm convinced the government wouldn't have sent them had it known the person would be killed in Argentina," Passarinho, 87, told Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper in an interview.
He rejected comparisons that likened the deportations to Nazis sending Jews to concentration camps.
"That's too much, it never went beyond an exchange of information," Passarinho said. "We arrested and sent them back, where they were to be tried—that's not a crime."
The Italian warrants were issued for Argentines, Bolivians, Brazilians, Chileans, Paraguayans, Peruvians and Uruguayans.
Those named are suspected in the deaths of 25 Italian citizens killed in Latin America in the 1970s. Italian magistrates can investigate the murder of Italian citizens overseas.
Argentina, Chile and Paraguay have investigated and put military officials on trial in recent years and the latest case renewed calls for Brazil to step up its own such efforts.
Paulo Vannuchi, secretary for human rights, said last week that Brazil should annul a 1979 amnesty law that pardoned military officials for political crimes.
He urged Brazilian courts to implement international treaties condemning such crimes.
Leaders of the influential Brazilian lawyers' association said Brazilian governments had been cowardly for not investigating wrongdoing during the military regime.
The justice minister has said that an extradition was unlikely as, in principle, Brazilian law does not permit extradition of its citizens for trial abroad. The Supreme Court has the final word.
Brazil had not yet received any extradition request, a spokeswoman for the justice ministry said Friday.
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