Cesare Battisti, a former Italian communist militant wanted for four murders, is most likely hiding in the Amazon rain forest after going on the run last month when a top judge ordered his arrest, local media cited Brazilian police as saying on Thursday.
Police have searched two embassies in neighbouring Bolivia and Venezuela in their search for Battisti, daily Estadao reported.
Brazil's far-right new president Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to extradite Battisti, whose arrest was ordered in mid-December by Brazilian Supreme Court judge Luis Fux - news welcomed by the Italian government.
Battisti, 63, who has a five-year-old Brazilian son, last year claimed he faced "torture" and death if he was sent back to Italy. He lived for years in Brazil under protection decreed by former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now in prison for graft.
A member of the outlawed Armed Proletarians for Communism far-left guerrilla group (PAC), Battisti went to live in Brazil over a decade ago after escaping from prison in Italy and fleeing to France in 1981.
He was convicted in absentia of four murders committed in the 1970s including of those of two police officers. Battisti admitted to being part of the Marxist PAC but denied responsibility for any deaths.
