by Keith Richmond
THE magistrate investigating the case of three foreign mercenaries shot dead as they were apparently planning to assassinate President Evo Morales in Bolivia last month has released witness statements implicating key figures in the Comité Pro-Santa Cruz.
The CPSC – an umbrella organisation for big business, right-wing politicians and local nationalists – has been trying to undermine Mr Morales’ social revolution by campaigning for autonomy for the region.
In the early hours of April 16 an elite police unit, flown in from La Paz, stormed rooms at the Hotel Las Americas in Santa Cruz and shot dead three men – Eduardo Rózsa Flores, Arpád Magyarosi and Michael Dwyer.
They appear to have had several potential targets including President Morales, Vice President Alvaro García Linera, Minister of the Presidency Juan Ramón Quintana and Santa Cruz Prefect Rubén Costas.
Rózsa Flores, the ringleader, was born in Santa Cruz of Hungarian-Bolivian parents; he recorded a video in Hungary in which he declared his intention to travel to Bolivia to organise an armed militia in defence of his “homeland” of Santa Cruz. Rózsa Flores was a supporter of the right-wing Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei and founded the neo-fascist First International Platoon to fight for the far-right in Croatia during the Balkan Wars.
Two other foreigners – Mario Tadic from Croatia and Elöd Tóásó from Hungary – were arrested and are still being questioned while two more – named as Daniel Gaspar and Gabor Dudog – are still being sought by police.
Ignacio Villa Vargas, a local fixer and driver for the gang, has told the investigating magistrate, Marcelo Soza, that key civic leaders in Santa Cruz were involved in the plot including Branko Marinkovic, the recently retired president of the CPSC, and Hugo Achá, who runs the Santa Cruz office of the US-based Human Rights Foundation. Both men have denied any involvement.
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