Opposition accuses Evo Morales before prosecutors over Hotel Las Américas case in Santa Cruz
Alianza Libre filed a complaint against Morales and García Linera for "crimes against humanity" in the 2009 operation that left three foreigners dead.
Complaint for crimes against humanity revives Hotel Las Américas case
Alianza Libre submitted on Friday to Bolivia's General Prosecutors' Office a formal accusation against former president Evo Morales for "crimes against humanity" linked to a controversial operation carried out in April 2009. Deputy Antonio Pino, representing the party, delivered the accusatory motion to the Public Ministry seeking to initiate a trial of responsibility against Morales—who governed between 2006 and 2019—and former vice president Álvaro García Linera, according to El Deber.
Pino declared to the media that Morales "has to answer" for the "acts against human rights" recorded in that case. The deputy affirmed that there were "summary executions" and that "three people have been murdered, but furthermore illegal detentions and even torture have been perpetrated". "These are crimes against humanity (...) We are presenting an important set of evidence which includes statements, press articles and the IACHR report," he added.
The document attributes to Morales and García Linera "direct criminal responsibility for the decision, transmission and political conduct of the operation executed on 16 April 2009" at Hotel Las Américas, located in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, and "for the unlawful results produced within the state structure activated from that decision".
The 2009 operation and its judicial consequences
In April 2009, a police operation at Hotel Las Américas resulted in three foreigners being killed, among them Irish national Michael Dwyer, and the detention of Croat-Bolivian Mario Tadic and Hungarian Elöd Tóásó. Both were accused of being part of a terrorist cell that allegedly planned the secession of Santa Cruz and an attack against then-president Morales.
In 2015, after entering an abbreviated process, Tadic and Tóásó were sentenced to five years and ten months in prison for armed uprising with secessionist aims. As they had already served their sentence in pre-trial detention, they left Bolivia citing fear for their safety and sued the Bolivian state before international bodies for crimes against humanity.
The 39 people prosecuted in the case argued that the Morales government at the time promoted it for political reasons in order to silence opposition leaders in Santa Cruz. The proceedings were closed in 2020 with the acquittal of all the accused who remained prosecuted, after the transitional government of Jeanine Áñez and the Bolivian prosecutors withdrew their accusations.
In 2022, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report—requested by lawyer Gerardo Prado Herrera and Dwyer's mother—in which it concluded that "the Bolivian state is responsible for the violation of the rights to life, personal integrity, personal freedom, judicial guarantees and judicial protection" to the detriment of the identified victims.
Next procedural steps
If the prosecutors accept the accusatory motion, the case will pass to the Legislature, where it will require the backing of two-thirds of parliamentarians. If approved, the former heads of state would be tried by the Bolivian Supreme Court.
Source: El Deber