Morales assassins: Bolivia gang "fought in Balkans"

[Jan Klimkowski]

Selected details from the US Embassy cable.

These are the two basic hypotheses being proposed.

The government prosecutor has implicated a
dozen top Santa Cruz leaders in supporting a "terrorist cell"
aiming to divide the country. A former public defender for
one of the Hungarian defendants told us the government had
informants within the group and a great deal of evidence to
support its claims. Meanwhile, Santa Cruz leaders claim the
government's investigation is a political show, timed to
undermine the one-year anniversary of the autonomy vote and
to weaken the democratic opposition before December national
elections.

The prosecutor's case places Marinkovic elements and US intelligence cutouts at the heart of the plot.

In a press
conference, prosecutor Marcelo Sosa said evidence collected
from the testimony of the arrested terrorist suspects and
confiscated materials indicated that the group had the
support of:
--Prefect (Governor) Ruben Costas;
--Former Civic Committee President Branko Marinkovic;
--President of the Private Business Association Pedro Yohvio;
--Former President of the Ranchers' Association and now Civic
Committee Vice President Guido Nayar;
--President of the Agricultural Chamber Mauricio Roca;
--Civic Committee General Director Lorgio Balcazar;
--Former Civic Committee General Director Mario Bruno;
--Vice-President of Blooming Soccer Team Carlos Alberto
Guillen;
--Director for International Cooperation at the Prefecture
Francisco Cirbian;
--Retired Army General Lucio Anez,
and others.

(snip)

Sosa told the press that an individual named Luis
Hurtado paid the hotel bills for the group. He said the
government investigation revealed that there were five major
financiers behind the "terrorist" organization, and

identified three of them:
--Alejandro MELGAR Pereira, a commercial arbitration lawyer
associated with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CAINCO);
--Juan Alberto KUDELKA Zalles, director of marketing of the
seed oil company owned by the Marinkovic family; and
--Hugo Antonio MELGAR Acha, Bolivian Director of the
U.S.-based NGO Human Rights Foundation, and a close embassy
contact on human rights issues.

The next excerpt is fascinating. It suggests that the case made in this thread that Rozsa Flores' group were mercenaries, hired to commit false flag attacks - eg an attack on the anti-Morales Cardinal and even one of their own facilitators, Prefect Ruben Costas' residence, with Costas' prior knowledge and complicity - is strong.

American Presence Post Officer met May 5 with the
former public defender assigned to alleged terrorist Mario
Tadic, one of the two Hungarian citizens arrested in the
April 15 raid on the Hotel Las Americas in Santa Cruz
(reftel). The defender had just recused herself from the
case, saying she couldn't function in the face of so many
judicial irregularities and so much government pressure, with
no support from her institution. Based on her discussions
with her former client and her review of all the government
evidence, she believes that the Santa Cruz leaders named by
the government are most likely linked with the group, which
she called "mercenaries" not "terrorists." She said they did
not seem to be acting out of any particular conviction, but
Tadic admitted they had been stockpiling weapons and carrying
out military training on rural properties outside the city of
Santa Cruz. She confirmed they were responsible for placing
the explosive device in front of the Cardinal's house on
April 14. Tadic testified that the next target was going to
be Prefect Ruben Costas' residence, and that Rozsa had
advised Costas to strengthen his security gate to minimize
the damage. The intent in targetting the Cardinal and the
Prefect was to make it look like MAS-supporters were carrying
out the attacks.

There are counter allegations of Bolivian government complicity and mistreatment of the prisoners.

My own suspicion is that the Morales' Secret Service knew about the activities of Rozsa Flores' gang soon after their arrival in Bolivia. I also suspect that there may have been some facilitation of their efforts to buy arms, etc, to ensure that their plot grew sufficiently advanced to amount to the attempt to commit atrocities to create the ground for an armed insurrection.

Once Rozsa Flores' plans neared fruition, Morales' Secret Service acted with lethal force, and did what JFK's Secret Service notoriously failed to do.

The cable ends, rather hysterically:

Perhaps we will never know the full truth. However, we can take small comfort in the fact that the public
defender did not report seeing the U.S. Embassy on any list of potential suspects.