José Nino Gavazzo

José Nino Gavazzo (2 October 1939 – 26 June 2021) was a Uruguayan army colonel. He was a member of the Servicio de Información y Defensa (SID). Gavazzo began his career as an artillery officer but became involved in intelligence and counter-insurgency operations from 1970 and was particularly prominent during the first part of Operation Condor. He was discharged from the army in 1978 after criticising the political ambitions of General Gregorio Conrado Álvarez. Gavazzo was convicted of extortion in 1995 and for the murder of 28 Uruguayans in 2009; he was facing further charges at the time of his death.

Early life and career Gavazzo was born on 2 October 1939 in Montevideo, Uruguay. His family was middle class and religious; his father was Italian in origin and had fought for Italy in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Gavozzo's mother died when he was young and on 1 March 1956 he joined the artillery section of the Uruguayan Army. In 1966 he was a captain and instructor at the military academy and in 1970 studied counter insurgency warfare in the United States. Under the government of Tabaré Vázquez, he was convicted of the illegal transfer of people kidnapped in Argentina and detained in a . At the time of his death he was facing additional charges relating to the 1973 murder of left-wing guerrilla Roberto Gomensoro, Gavazzo had admitted to a military tribunal that he threw Gomensoro's body into a river.