Morales assassins: Bolivia gang "fought in Balkans"

[Jan Klimkowski]

Bolivian authorities seek Hungarian man living in Ireland

CONOR LALLY and DAN McLAUGHLIN in BudapestBOLIVIAN AUTHORITIES investigating an alleged plot to kill political figures there and the related shooting dead by police of Irishman Michael Dwyer want to interview a Hungarian man living in Ireland.

The potentially key witness worked for the same Irish security firm as Mr Dwyer. The company is based in Co Kildare.

The 32-year-old Hungarian of Romanian extraction is believed to have worked for the company until recent weeks. He is still living in the Republic.

The Bolivians believe the man – a former soldier in the Hungarian army – was instrumental in bringing Dwyer to Bolivia from Ireland with a number of other men.

“According to our information, [the Hungarian] was the head and organiser of this group. Not only here but in his own country. He has experience of forming irregular groups,” said Bernardo Montenegro, a member of a Bolivian parliamentary commission investigating the case.

Mr Dwyer travelled with the 32-year-old Hungarian – along with another Hungarian and a Polish man – from Ireland to Bolivia last November.

Mr Dwyer (25) had told his parents in Ballinderry, Co Tipperary, he was going to Bolivia to do a bodyguard course.

The men paid their own fare as far as Madrid. There they collected prepaid tickets to Bolivia. It is unclear who paid for the tickets.

Mr Dwyer decided to travel after he and his former colleagues lost their jobs with the security company when their contracts expired last October.

The Hungarian who went with Mr Dwyer knew Eduardo Rozsa Flores, the 49-year-old shot dead with Mr Dwyer in a Santa Cruz hotel in the early hours of Thursday, April 16th. The Hungarian man introduced Mr Dwyer to Mr Flores.

The Hungarian man and the other two who travelled with Mr Dwyer to Bolivia returned to Ireland early, because the bodyguard course it has been suggested they had gone to take part in fell through.

Mr Dwyer stayed on with Mr Flores, on the pretence of working as a security guard for him. He was later killed with Mr Flores.

The Hungarian now living in Ireland and Mr Flores have both been linked to the Szekler Legion, which wants autonomy for Hungarians in Romania. The Bolivians have said Mr Flores was the leader of a group of mercenaries in Santa Cruz and that he was planning to kill president Evo Morales.

It was during a police operation aimed at foiling that alleged plot that Mr Dwyer and Mr Flores and a third man were shot dead.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/irel...10911.html