BOLIVIA to Try Former Military Officers Linked to Terrorism

[magbana]

"Bolivia to Try Officers Linked to Terrorism

Escrito por Ana Luisa Brown
domingo, 24 de mayo de 2009
24 de mayo de 2009, 11:59

La Paz, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian President Evo Morales has requested former military officers linked to a terrorist group dismantled in April in Santa Cruz be brought to trial, local media reported on Sunday.

Addressing a rally yesterday in Pocona, Cochabamba, Morales said officers involved with the group led by Bolivian-Croatian Eduardo Rozsa Flores must be punished.

If it is confirmed that the retired generals were plotting to divide Bolivia, I want to call the Military Higher Command to impose a harsh punishment on them, he said.

At the commemoration marking the battle against the Spanish colony in Quewiñal (May, 1812) Morales affirmed such information has come out during the investigations being carried out by a special Congressional commission.

On the base of witnesses declarations and confessions the parliamentarians have summoned Commander (retired) Lucio Añez to give his testimony, along with other 20 Santa Cruz businessmen.

Key witness Ignacio Villa Vargas, alias El Viejo �Old Man' claimed civil governors and department authorities from Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarijam Pando and Chuquisaca knew Eduardo Rozsa Flores and his collaborators.

The list includes businessmen Hugo Acha, Alejandro Melgarm Luis Hurtado, Enrique Vaca, Lorgio Balcazar and Orlando Justiniano who were allegedly in direct contact with the terrorist group.

In April 16, Bolivian security forces raided a hotel in Santa Cruz and killed Rózsa Flores and two of his accomplices: 24-year-old Irishman Michael Dwyer and Árpád Magyarosi, a 28-year-old Romanian.

The gang, which was plotting to kill Morales and other top government officials and promote separatism in eastern Bolivia, had an arsenal of weapons and C-4 plastic explosives.

The Bolivian government on Wednesday approved an antisedition decree allowing the government to seize the property of suspects in terrorism cases."
http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85889&Itemid=1

[Judi Lynn]

1. Looking forward to reading more on this. 1st time I've heard of the military guys.

Reminds you a little of the high ranking military who transacted with Rumsfeld when it was known Morales would win the election, and Rumsfeld made deals behind the back of even the sitting President of Bolivia to spirit the anti-aircraft missiles they got from China out of the country. They took them to an Air Force base in Texas.

When that President learned what had happened he sacked all the high-ranking officials involved in this filthy act of treason against the Bolivian government.

Furore as US destroys Bolivia-bound missiles

sent by Simon McGuinness

Once again the USA reveals its sensitivity to its neighbour's possession
of surface-to-air missiles. The currently unfolding story of the Iraqi
resistance's ability to deny US control of the skys over Iraq by the use
of such missiles must highlight the need for such weapons in any country
wishing to repel a potential US invasion.

Every invading army relies on continuous resupply of its forces; land
based resupply convoys are easily identified and attacked so the
military fall back on helicopters for resupply missions. These are
rendered ineffective in the presence of surface-to-air missiles. It was
the provision (by the CIA) of SAMs to the Taliban Mujahideen that
resulted in the defeat of the Soviet army in Afghanistan. The IRA's
acquisition (but non-use, at least in Ireland) of surface-to-air
missiles was the turning point in the British military campaign in
northern Ireland.

The message is clear: if you want to oust a democratically elected
government and install a US puppet, make sure you decommission their
surface-to-air missiles first. On the other hand, if you want to deter
a US invasion the best weapon is clearly a nuclear missile (during the
Cold War it used to be good enough just to have a friend who had a
nuclear missile).-SMcG]

Reuters via The Irish Times - January 19, 2006
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2006/0119/781702062FR19BOLIV.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bolivia's Defense Chiefs Ousted in Missile Scandal
Reuters
Wednesday, January 18, 2006; Page A11


LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan. 18 -- A scandal in Bolivia over surface-to-air missiles prompted the defense minister's resignation and the army chief's dismissal Tuesday, plunging the military into a political crisis days before socialist president-elect Evo Morales is to be sworn into office.

The outgoing interim president, Eduardo Rodriguez, said he had accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Gonzalo Mendez, and fired Gen. Marcelo Antezana over apparent irregularities in the destruction in the United States of a batch of Chinese-made missiles in October.

"I have relieved the commander of the army of his duties and accepted the defense minister's resignation," Rodriguez told reporters after a cabinet meeting Tuesday.

At the height of campaigning for last month's presidential elections, Morales denounced the destruction of the 28 to 30 Chinese HN-5 shoulder-fired missiles, the only arms of their kind in the military's arsenal.

Antezana, the army chief, told reporters that Washington initiated the drive to destroy the missiles because it feared Morales would win the presidency of the South American country.

He later retracted his remarks.

Morales, who will be sworn into office Sunday, has lodged a legal complaint over the transfer, accusing the president of "putting Bolivia under foreign domination."

Rodriguez said that he had authorized the destruction of the missiles, but not their transfer to the United States.

Morales, leader of the Movement Toward Socialism party, has emerged as one of Latin America's strongest critics of the Bush administration. He opposes a U.S.-promoted hemispheric trade pact, arguing that it disproportionately benefits the wealthy, and opposes U.S. efforts to eradicate coca plants.

Street protests led by Bolivia's Indian majority have toppled two Bolivian presidents in the past two years, and helped to propel Morales to a sweeping election victory. His supporters see Morales -- who will be the nation's first indigenous president -- as a chance to reverse centuries of exploitation by foreign governments and multinational corporations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011800124.html