Romanian killed in Bolivia in 2009: Evo Morales charged with murder and torture
Bolivia's Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a new investigation against former president Evo Morales for the killing of three Europeans in a hotel in Santa Cruz in 2009.
Bolivian investigation into murder and torture targets former president Morales
Bolivia's Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a new criminal investigation against former left-wing president Evo Morales, according to ProTV News, for alleged acts of murder and torture linked to a police operation that resulted in the deaths of three Europeans in 2009.
A police commando raided the Las Americas hotel in Santa Cruz, in the east of the country, and fatally shot three men: Bolivian-Croat Eduardo Rozsa-Flores, Irishman Michael Dwyer and Romanian of ethnic Hungarian origin Arpad Magyarosi. Two other survivors later reported torture inflicted after their arrest, according to Agerpres.
The government at the time maintained that the group was preparing a separatist movement financed by the right-wing economic elite of Santa Cruz. The official version, according to which the three men were killed during a firefight, was quickly contested.
The investigation was announced shortly after the arrest of Roger Mariaca, appointed attorney general in 2024 by a Parliament then controlled by the Movement for Socialism (MAS), Morales' party. Mariaca is accused of links to drug trafficking.
In a letter addressed to the Supreme Court of Justice, interim prosecutor general Jose Armando Urioste specifies that the investigation also targets former vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera. The case was opened as a result of a complaint filed by right-wing parliamentarians Tomasa Yarhui and Rodrigo Antonio, the latter confirming to AFP that it concerns the case known as the "Las Americas Hotel" case.
The families of the victims have petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), which concluded in 2021 that the Bolivian state had committed serious human rights violations and referred the case to the Inter-American Court for trial.
Neither Evo Morales nor his former vice-president have made any statement so far. Morales, sheltering in his stronghold in Chapare, in the centre of the country, is already the subject of two arrest warrants: one related to protests that paralysed Bolivia in May and June, and another for the alleged trafficking of a minor with whom he fathered a daughter. He denies both accusations.
Source: Știrile ProTV