“Bolivian born Flores was killed in an April 16, 2009 pre-dawn police raid at the Hotel Las Americas in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Police killed two other men, Michael Dwyer of Ireland, and Arpad Magyarosi of Romania, during the raid in connection with an alleged plot to kill Bolivia’s President Evo Morales. Two survivors of the raid, Mario Tadic of the Balkans, and ethnic Hungarian Elod Toaso, were jailed without bail on terrorism charges after a closed hearing.”
“After 15 minutes of gunfire, three men were dead in their underwear on separate hotel room floors: A Bolivian-born Hungarian, an Irishman and a Romanian. Two of their comrades with ties to Croatia and Hungary were arrested in rooms down the hall.”
“A few hours later, President Evo Morales announced during a visit to Venezuela that an assassination plot against him, hatched by right-wing extremists and employing foreign mercenaries, had been foiled on his instructions.”
“The strange events of April 16 have only deepened political and social rifts in this nation of 10 million, where Morales, an Indian and a strident leftist, faces an intransigent foe in the light-skinned elite of this provincial capital. Vice President Alvaro Garcia has blamed the alleged plot on “the fascist and racist right” of Santa Cruz. Morales’ opponents in turn claim the government is trying to discredit them and bolster his campaign for re-election in December.”
“The killings have also brought Bolivia to the attention of four European countries impatient for an explanation. Hungary, Ireland, Romania and Croatia have all asked for what the latter called “a full and impartial” accounting.”
“In September, [Eduardo Rozsa Flores] told a TV journalist in Hungary that he was returning home to organize a militia. You can only broadcast the interview, Rozsa said, if I don’t return alive.”
“The other two slain men apparently lacked Rozsa’s combat experience, if not his sense of adventure. So under what premise – and for what exactly – did he recruit them?”
“Michael Dwyer was a 24-year-old Irish security guard whose family said he went to Bolivia in October looking for work.”
“Arpad Magyarosi, 29, was an ethnic Hungarian rock musician and schoolteacher from Romania who relatives said loved to travel.”
“The raid’s two survivors were flown to the highlands capital of La Paz and jailed without bail on terrorism charges after a closed hearing. They are Mario Tadic, a 51-year-old Bolivia-Croat comrade-in-arms of Rozsa from the Balkans, and Hungarian computer technician Elod Toaso.”
“Bolivian Defense Minister Walker San Miguel said Rozsa recruited Toaso, 28, through the Szekler Legion, a right-wing group that promotes autonomy for Romania’s ethnic Hungarians.”
“In the Sept. 8 interview where he laid out his plan to form a militia in Bolivia, Rozsa told Hungarian television anchor Andras Kepes that he intended to sneak in through Brazil. He said he was going not as an agitator, but as a defender.”
““I have been called to organize the defense of the city and province of Santa Cruz,” he said. “This isn’t about me going to the Bolivian jungle to play Che Guevara.”
Read more: Bolivia plot: assassins or victims?
2021-week21
