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Alejandro Melgar reveals that airline tickets paid militia
Actualizado 04/06/2009 Updated 04/06/2009
![[Image: rozsa.jpg]](http://www.laprensa.com.bo/noticias/04-06-09/fotos/rozsa.jpg)
Fallecido: Eduardo Rózsa Flores, líder de una milicia desbaratada por la Policía, junto a Micheal Dwyer Died: Eduardo Rózsa Flores, leader of a militia disrupted by the police, along with Michael Dwyer
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Rózsa Flores hizo 90 viajes desde febrero de 2006, cuando llegó a Bolivia; 12 de ellos fueron al exterior. Rózsa Flores made 90 trips since February 2006, when he arrived in Bolivia, 12 of them were overseas.
El abogado cruceño Alejandro Melgar Pereyra pagó en efectivo 21.316,50 dólares por la compra de 11 boletos aéreos en la ruta Madrid-Santa Cruz-Madrid para ocho de los integrantes de la milicia dirigida por Eduardo Rózsa Flores. Counsel Cruz Pereyra Alejandro Melgar paid $ 21,316.50 in cash for the purchase of 11 tickets on the route Madrid-Santa Cruz-Madrid for eight members of the militia led by Eduardo Rózsa Flores. El padre del sindicado, Johnny Melgar Castedo, duda de la investigación parlamentaria y pide averiguar el movimiento bancario de su hijo para determinar si pudo haber efectuado esos pagos. The accused's father, Johnny Melgar Castedo, doubts the parliamentary inquiry and asked the bank to find out your child to determine whether it could have made such payments.
El irlandés Micheal Dwyer, los húngaros Tibor Révész, Elöd Tóásó, Daniel Gáspar y Gabor Dudog, el eslovaco Ivan Pistovcák, el rumano Árpád Magyarosi y el boliviano-croata Mario Tádic llegaron a Santa Cruz con los pasajes adquiridos por Melgar, quien hasta el 13 de abril era uno de los 64 integrantes del cuerpo de árbitros conciliadores de la Cámara de Industria Comercio, Turismo y Servicios de Santa Cruz (Cainco). Michael Dwyer The Irish, Hungarians Tibor Révész, elodes Tóásó, Daniel Gaspar and Dudog Gabor, Ivan Pistovcák the Slovak, Romanian and Magyarosi Árpád boliviano-Croatian Mario Tadic arrived in Santa Cruz with tickets purchased by Melgar, who until 13 April was one of 64 members of the body of arbitrators of conciliators Industry Chamber of Commerce, Tourism and Services of Santa Cruz (CAINCO).
Rózsa, Dwyer y Magyarosi murieron la madrugada del 16 de abril en un operativo policial desarrollado en el cuarto piso del hotel Las Américas, en tanto que Tóásó y Tádic fueron capturados con vida y actualmente están recluidos en La Paz. Rózsa, Dwyer Magyarosi and died the morning of April 16 in a police operation carried out in the fourth floor of the Hotel Las Americas, while Tadic Tóásó and were captured alive and currently being held in La Paz.
Entrevistado por la red televisiva Uno, Johnny Melgar Castedo, también abogado y padre de Alejandro Melgar Pereyra, descalificó ese informe y la tarea que lleva a cabo César Navarro como presidente de la comisión multipartidaria de la Cámara de Diputados, que indaga el caso de supuesto terrorismo. Interviewed by the TV One network, Johnny Melgar Castedo, also a lawyer and father of Alejandro Melgar Pereyra, dismissed that report and the task carried out Cesar Navarro as president of the multi-party commission of the Chamber of Deputies, that investigates the case of alleged terrorism.
“Lo que diga él (Navarro) no vale un centavo, no voy a contestar a un bellaco”. "What they say he (Navarro) is not worth a penny, I will not reply to a rogue." Melgar Castedo sugirió que se solicite a las autoridades del rubro un extracto del movimiento bancario de su hijo para que estimar si estaba en condiciones de pagar esa cantidad de pasajes. Melgar Castedo suggested to ask the authorities of heading an excerpt from the bank for your child to determine whether it was able to pay that amount of tickets.
Explicó, finalmente, que Alejandro Melgar está fuera del país por la falta de seguridad jurídica existente en Bolivia. He finally Alejandro Melgar which is outside the country for lack of legal security in Bolivia.
De acuerdo con el informe remitido por AeroSur, los presuntos mercenarios Dwyer, Révész, Dudog y Pistovcák llegaron a Santa Cruz el 17 de noviembre del año pasado, procedentes de Madrid (España). According to the report from AEROSUR, suspected mercenaries Dwyer, Révész, Dudog and Pistovcák came to Santa Cruz on November 17 last year, from Madrid (Spain).
Daniel Gáspar fue el primero de los foráneos en arribar a Bolivia. Daniel Gaspar was the first outsiders to arrive in Bolivia. Su presencia en la capital cruceña se remonta al 6 de noviembre del año pasado. Their presence in the capital Santa Cruz goes back to November 6 last year. Révész y Pistovcák abandonaron el país el 22 de febrero de este año y Gáspar lo hizo el 25 de marzo, en tanto que no hay registro de la fecha de salida de Dudog por la compañía AeroSur. Révész Pistovcák and left the country on February 22 this year and did Gaspar March 25, while there is no record of the date of departure from the company AEROSUR Dudog.
El embajador húngaro en Argentina, concurrente en Bolivia, Matyás Joszá, declaró a la agencia noticiosa MIT, de su país, que esta persona y Gáspar se encuentran en Budapest, pese a las sospechas de Tádic en sentido de que habían sido asesinados por Rózsa después de sostener una discusión. The Hungarian ambassador in Argentina, Bolivia concurrent, Joszá Matyas, told the news agency MIT, his country, that person and Gaspar are in Budapest, despite the suspicions in that Tadic had been killed by Rózsa after to sustain a discussion.
Las empresas que vendieron los boletos aéreos son, además de los mostradores de AeroSur, las agencias Turismo Balas, Air France, Aries, Bolivia BIB Tours, Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano, Pantur, El Corte Inglés (España), Tropical Tours, una agencia de Corumbá (Brasil) y Athina Tours. The companies that sold the tickets are, plus desks AEROSUR, Balas Travel Agencies, Air France, Aries, BIB Bolivia Tours, Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, Pantur, El Corte Ingles (Spain), Tropical Tours, an agency Corumbá (Italy) and Athina Tours.
Bajo la identidad de Jorge Hurtado Flores, Rózsa efectuó desde su llegada al país 90 viajes, de los que 12 fueron al exterior del país. Under the identity of Jorge Hurtado Flores, Rózsa place since their arrival in the country 90 trips, of which 12 were abroad.
Sao Paulo, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Miami (en tres ocasiones), Salta, Asunción del Paraguay y Brasil, en tres oportunidades, y Argentina, en la restante, fueron sus destinos extranjeros. Sao Paulo, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Miami (three times), Salta, Asuncion, Paraguay and Brazil, three times, and Argentina, the rest were their foreign destinations.
La comisión multipartidaria que investiga el caso de supuesto terrorismo solicitó un informe a la Dirección Nacional de Migración en torno a la manera en la que extendió este pasaporte. The multi-party commission that is investigating the case of alleged terrorism requested a report to the National Directorate of Immigration on the way out the passport.
La emisión de las libretas de viaje demora 24 horas, tiempo que en su mayoría es empleado por las autoridades de esa dependencia del Ministerio de Gobierno para verificar la exactitud de los datos contenidos en la cédula de identidad del ciudadano que tramita el documento. The issuance of the books 24 hours of travel delay, while the majority is employed by the authorities of that branch of the Ministry of Government to verify the accuracy of the information contained in the citizen's identity card that processes the document.
El diputado oficialista César Navarro se preguntó, además, cómo es posible que “Jorge Hurtado Flores” hubiera recibido visas para ingresar en Estados Unidos y España. The deputies asked César Navarro also how it is possible that "Jorge Hurtado Flores" had received visas to enter United States and Spain.
Convenios internacionales suscritos por el Estado en años pasados permiten que los ciudadanos bolivianos ingresen en Argentina, Brasil o Paraguay con la sola presentación de la cédula de identidad, por lo que no es obligatorio el uso de pasaporte. International agreements signed by the state in past years allow Bolivian citizens entering Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay with the single presentation of identity card, so it is not compulsory to use a passport.
Reporte pasa a la Fiscalía Report goes to the Attorney
El presidente de la comisión multipartidaria que investiga el caso de supuesto terrorismo, César Navarro, anunció ayer que remitirá a la Fiscalía una copia del reporte oficial entregado por AeroSur sobre los viajes hechos por Jorge Hurtado Flores, uno de los alias de Eduardo Rózsa Flores, además de los extranjeros Micheal Dwyer, Elöd Tóásó, Daniel Gáspar, Ivan Pistovcák, Tibor Révész, Gabor Dudog, Mario Francisco Tádic y Árpád Magyarosi. The chairman of the multi-party commission that is investigating the case of alleged terrorism, César Navarro, announced yesterday that it sent to the Prosecutor a copy of the official report issued by AEROSUR on travel by Jorge Hurtado Flores, one of the alias Eduardo Rózsa Flores, besides foreigners Michael Dwyer, elodes Tóásó, Daniel Gáspár, Ivan Pistovcák, Tibor Révész, Gabor Dudog, Mario Francisco Tadic and Árpád Magyarosi.
Navarro informó que se solicitaron también informes similares a las demás aerolíneas que efectúan vuelos de cabotaje en el país y citó a Amaszonas y Aerocon, para que informen en torno a la contratación de vuelos chárter a diferentes puntos de la “media luna”. Navarro was claimed also reported that similar reports to other airlines that carry cabotage flights in the country and cited Amaszonas and Aerocon, to report on the hiring of charter flights to different parts of the "crescent".
El parlamentario señaló que se investiga el movimiento bancario de los presuntos financiadores del grupo irregular, entre quienes mencionó a Hugo Antonio Achá Melgar, Alejandro Melgar Pereyra, Luis Alberto Hurtado Vaca, Orlando Justiniano, Héctor Laguna Paniagua y Edgardo Cuéllar. The congressman noted that the bank was investigating the alleged financiers of the illegal group, among whom he mentioned Hugo Antonio Acha Melgar Alejandro Melgar Pereyra, Luis Alberto Hurtado Vaca Justiniano Orlando, Héctor Edgardo Cuellar and Paniagua Laguna.
Los viajes de Jorge Hurtado Flores Travel by Jorge Hurtado Flores
JORGE HURTADO FLORES es uno de los alias con los que Eduardo Rózsa Flores se movía por todo el país. JORGE HURTADO FLORES is one of the aliases by which Eduardo Rózsa Flores moved across the country.
EL PRIMER VIAJE del líder del grupo irregular se produjo entre Santa Cruz, La Paz y Cochabamba, periplo que cumplió entre el 16 y el 19 de febrero de 2006. The first trip of the leader of the group illegally took place between Santa Cruz, La Paz and Cochabamba, which celebrated its journey between 16 and 19 February 2006.
EDUARDO RÓZSA visitó la ciudad de Cobija (Pando) en dos ocasiones: entre el 23 y el 26 de marzo de 2006 y entre el 2 y el 5 de agosto de 2008, un mes antes de la “masacre de Porvenir”. EDUARDO RÓZSA visited the city of Cobija (Pando) twice between 23 and 26 March 2006 and between 2 and 5 August 2008, a month before the slaughter of the Future. "
EL 19 DE DICIEMBRE de 2006, el presunto mercenario ingresó en territorio nacional desde Puerto Suárez (Santa Cruz) y compró su boleto a una agencia de viajes de Corumbá, Brasil. ON 19 DECEMBER 2006, the alleged mercenaries entered the national territory from Puerto Suárez (Santa Cruz) and purchased his ticket at a travel agency in Corumba, Brazil.
LA PAZ, COCHABAMBA y Santa Cruz fueron los destinos internos más comunes del boliviano-croata-húngaro. La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz were the most common destinations internal boliviano-Croatian-Hungarian.
EL PERSONAJE visitó la ciudad de Sucre en una ocasión: el 8 de febrero de 2007. THE CHARACTER visited the city of Sucre on one occasion: the February 8, 2007. El listado de vuelos no consigna uno de regreso hacia el eje del país, por lo que debió dejar esa capital por vía terrestre. The list of flights not a slogan back to the axis of the country, so that capital had to leave by land.
LA CIUDAD estadounidense de Miami fue el destino en tres oportunidades del presunto terrorista. The American city of Miami was the destination three times of the alleged terrorist. En las tres ocasiones ingresó con el nombre de Jorge Hurtado Flores. In the three times he entered under the name Jorge Hurtado Flores.
ESE CIUDADANO boliviano debió tener una visa por determinado tiempo para ingresar en territorio de Estados Unidos. Boliviano that citizen had to take some time for a visa to enter United States territory.
DESDE SU LLEGADA al país, en febrero de 2006, el periodo más largo en el que Rózsa Flores estuvo fuera de Bolivia, comprendió entre el 24 de agosto y el 4 de noviembre de 2007. Since his arrival to the country in February 2006, the longest period in which Rózsa Flores was out of Bolivia, included between August 24 and November 4, 2007.
PARA EFECTUAR ese viaje empleó la ruta La Paz-Santa Cruz- Sao Paulo y el regreso fue entre esa ciudad industrial brasileña y la capital cruceña. Used for this trip route La Paz-Santa Cruz-Sao Paulo and the return was between the Brazilian industrial city and the capital Santa Cruz.
EL 19 DE FEBRERO de 2007, Rózsa Flores viajó a Madrid (España). On 19 February 2007, Rózsa Flores traveled to Madrid (Spain). Fue el periplo más largo que cumplió antes de su muerte. It was the longest journey completed before his death. Retornó al país a través de otra aerolínea. He returned to the country through another airline.
UN RÁPIDO DESPLAZAMIENTO fue el que hizo entre Santa Cruz, Buenos Aires, Asunción del Paraguay y Santa Cruz. A rapid movement was made from Santa Cruz, Buenos Aires, Asuncion, Paraguay and Santa Cruz.
PARA EFECTUAR ese viaje llevó una maleta que pesó 25 kilogramos y estuvo fuera entre el 12 y el 16 de abril de 2007. For this trip took a suitcase that weighed 25 kilograms and was out between 12 and 16 April 2007.
EL SERVICIO DEPARTAMENTAL del Deporte autorizó el uso del intercambio de servicios firmado con AeroSur para que Rózsa Flores cubriera cuatro rutas. DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE Sport authorized the use of the service exchange signed with Rózsa Flores AEROSUR to cover four routes.
LOS ÚLTIMOS EXTRANJEROS en llegar a Bolivia fueron Mario Tádic Astorga, el 11 de febrero de 2009, y Árpád Magyarosi, el 20 de febrero de este año. RECENT EXTRANJEROS were to arrive in Bolivia Tadic Mario Astorga on February 11, 2009, and Árpád Magyarosi on February 20 this year. Ambos aterrizaron procedentes de Madrid (España). Both arrived from Madrid (Spain).
EL REPORTE DE LA AEROLÍNEA consigna solamente el nombre de Jorge Hurtado, por lo que los investigadores averiguan si entre los viajeros hay algún homónimo. REPORT OF THE AIRLINE recorded only the name of Jorge Hurtado, so that researchers find out whether there were any passengers namesake.
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"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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I think they will be waiting as long as Cuba and Venezuela have been waiting for Posada. I hope they are not going to hold their breath. Interesting that they run to the US, not Spain, Argentina, or other places when things get too hot for them in Bolivia.
Bolivia asked the U.S. extradition of accused terrorist
Jueves 04 de Junio de 2009 09:58 RedBolivia Internacional Thursday 04 June 2009 09:58 RedBolivia International[URL="http://66.102.11.132/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.redbolivia.com/component/mailto/%3Ftmpl%3Dcomponent%26link%3DaHR0cDovL3d3dy5yZWRib2xpdmlhLmNvbS9ib2xpdmlhL2dvYmllcm5vLzM2MzktYm9saXZpYS1wZWRpcmEtYS1lZXV1LWV4dHJhZGljaW9uLWRlLWFjdXNhZG9zLWRlLXRlcnJvcmlzbW8uaHRtbA%253D%253D&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhi3Hdg6z1x3k8KIBiRDqOF5SoL5Pw"]
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![[Image: alejandro_melgar-rbn.jpg]](http://www.redbolivia.com/images/stories/images3/alejandro_melgar-rbn.jpg) Alejandro Melgar one of the funders of terrorism in Bolivia according to a report by the Commission of Inquiry in Bolivia. (Photo APG).
La Paz, Bolivia (APG). La Paz, Bolivia (APG). - Este miércoles se conoció que el Gobierno de Evo Morales solicitará a su similar de Estados Unidos la extradición de ciudadanos bolivianos acusados en nuestro país de financiar a un presunto grupo irregular desarticulado el pasado 16 de abril, en la ciudad de Santa Cruz. - This was learned Wednesday that the government of Evo Morales will ask the United States similar to the extradition of Bolivian citizens in our country accused of funding an alleged irregular group disbanded last April 16 in Santa Cruz.
En Estados Unidos se encuentran refugiados Hugo Achá, Alejandro Melgar y Luis Hurtado Vaca, identificados como los principales financiadores de la presunta célula terrorista liderada por el boliviano-húngaro- croata Eduardo Rózsa Flores, abatido en un operativo policial junto a otros dos miembros del grupo irregular. In United States are refugees Acha Hugo Alejandro Melgar Hurtado and Luis Vaca, identified as the main financiers of the alleged terror cell led by the Hungarian-Croatian-boliviano Eduardo Rózsa Flores, killed in a police operation along with two other group members irregular.
Achá es identificado como representante de Human Rights Foundation (HRF), mientras que Melgar era árbitro del Centro de Conciliación y Arbitraje de la Cámara de Industria, Comercio y Turismo de Santa Cruz (Cainco) y Luis Hurtado, se desempeñaba como consejero de Cotas. Acha is identified as a representative of Human Rights Foundation (HRF), while the referee was Melgar Center for Conciliation and Arbitration of the Chamber of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Santa Cruz (CAINCO) and Luis Hurtado, served as counselor Cotas.
El 16 de abril último, en el hotel cruceño Las Américas, junto a Rózsa perdieron la vida en la operación, Magyarosi Arpád (húngaro-croata) y Michael Martin Dwyer (irlandés), y fueron detenidos Mario Tadic (boliviano con pasaporte croata) y Elod Toasó (húngaro), quienes están en prisión preventiva en La Paz. On April 16 last, at the Las Americas Hotel Santa Cruz, along with Rózsa died in the operation, Magyarosi Arpád (Hungarian-Croatian) and Michael Martin Dwyer (Irish), and were arrested Mario Tadic (boliviano Croatian passport) and elodes Toasó (Hungarian), who are in custody in La Paz.
Dos días después apresaron a Juan Carlos Gueder y al paraguayo Alcides Mendoza, miembros confesos de la Unión Juvenil Cruceñista, brazo fuerte del opositor Comité Cívico Pro Santa Cruz Two days later arrested Juan Carlos Guedes and paraguayo Alcides Mendoza confessed members of the Youth Union Cruceños, strong arm of the opposition Civic Committee Pro Santa Cruz
Por su parte, el fiscal Marcelo Sosa, que investiga el caso de terrorismo y de la célula irregular desarticulada en abril en Santa Cruz, saludó la decisión del Gobierno de tramitar la extradición de los implicados en financiar al grupo de sicarios que huyeron a Estados Unidos. For its part, the prosecutor Marcelo Sosa, who investigates the case of terrorism and irregular cell disarray in April in Santa Cruz, welcomed the Government's decision to pursue the extradition of those involved in financing the group of assassins who fled to United States .
El ministro de la Presidencia, Juan Ramón Quintana, en los próximos días encabezará una delegación que viajará al país del Norte para solicitar, entre otros cosas, la extradición del ex presidente Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, acusado de genocidio por la muerte de al menos 67 personas y unos 400 heridos en una revuelta popular que se generó ante la oposición de vender gas a través de territorio chileno. Presidency Minister Juan Ramon Quintana, in the coming days will head a delegation that will travel the country from North to seek, among other things, the extradition of former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, accused of genocide over the deaths of at least 67 people and about 400 injured in a popular revolt that led to the opposition of selling gas through Chilean territory.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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One less CIA front. For a company that advertises itself as big on transparency they sure are shady about their funding http://www.thehrf.org/
Bolivia: Surrender collective directory Human Rights Foundation - Bolivia
Jueves 04 de Junio de 2009 10:06 RedBolivia Internacional Thursday 04 June 2009 10:06 RedBolivia International
![[Image: hugo-acha-rbn.jpg]](http://www.redbolivia.com/images/stories/images3/hugo-acha-rbn.jpg) Hugo Acha former chairman of the Human Rights Foundation Bolivia (Photo ABI).
Santa Cruz, Bolivia (APG). Santa Cruz, Bolivia (APG). - El ex presidente de la Human Rights Foundation-Bolivia (HRF), Hugo Achá, acusado por el Ministerio Público de haber financiado a la célula terrorista desbaratada el pasado 16 abril en Santa Cruz, ha provocado la renuncia colectiva del directorio que se había reestructurado recientemente. - Former president of the Bolivia-Human Rights Foundation (HRF), Hugo Acha, accused by the prosecution to have funded terrorist cell disrupted last April 16 in Santa Cruz, has led to the collective resignation of the directory has been restructured recently.
Mediante un comunicado, emitido este miércoles, la HRF puso al descubierto que el ex presidente de la Human Right habría manejado la organización en forma individual y sin haber cumplido con los estatutos. A communique issued on Wednesday, the HRF revealed that the former president of the Human Right would have handled the organization on an individual basis and without having complied with the statutes.
En marzo de 2007, al crearse la Human Rights se estableció un Directorio ad hoc presidido por Hugo Achá, que debía tener vigencia de algunos meses hasta tanto se lograra la obtención de su personería jurídica, que demoró un año. In March 2007, the creation of the Human Rights established an ad hoc Board chaired by Hugo Acha, which should force a few months until it was achieved to obtain legal personality, it took a year.
A pesar de contar con la personería, no se produjo la correspondiente convocatoria por parte de Achá para elegir al nuevo Directorio titular, prolongándose una situación irregular por espacio de todo el 2008 y comienzos del 2009, periodo en el que Achá (al igual que en el 2007) no convocó al directorio para llevar a cabo reuniones en forma regular. Despite having the personality, there was a corresponding call from Asha to select the new directory owner, by extending an irregular area around the 2008's and early 2009, a period when Acha (as in 2007) did not convene the board to conduct meetings on a regular basis.
"Es decir, que durante toda la gestión presidencial del Dr. Achá los demás integrantes del Directorio no tuvimos un conocimiento de sus actividades", dice un comunicado del directorio de la Fundación firmado por Fernando Cuéllar Nuñez, Centa Rek L., Emilio Martínez y Alejandra Barbery. "This means that throughout the presidential term of Dr Acha other members of the Board had no knowledge of their activities," said a communique of the board of the Foundation signed Cuellar Fernando Nuñez, L. Centa REK, Emilio Martinez and Alejandra Barbery.
A dos años del funcionamiento de HRF, el directorio recién toma los debidos recaudos para conocer los Estatutos y es en marzo del presente año, que se apersonaron a la Notaría de Fe Pública para lograr copias de los Estatutos. In two years of operation of HRF, the directory just takes reasonable care to know the statutes and in March this year, which appeared to the Notary Public of Faith to bring copies of the statutes. En el análisis jurídico de los Estatutos quedó claro que el periodo del presidente fenecía el 12 de abril del corriente año. In the legal analysis of the Statute is clear that the period of President fenecía the April 12 this year. Eso, tomando el periodo correspondiente a un presidente titular, según aseguran en descargo los integrantes del HRF Bolivia. So, taking the period of an incumbent President, according to the suspect members of the HRF Bolivia.
“En esta circunstancia” se produjo la investigación sobre el caso de terrorismo en el que Hugo Achá se halla implicado por testigos que prestaron declaración informativa ante el Fiscal Marcelo Sosa, en la sede de gobierno. "In this circumstance was the investigation of terrorist cases in which Hugo Acha is implicated by witnesses who gave statements to the Prosecutor Marcelo Sosa, at the seat of government.
Debido a la ausencia de Achá, quien se encuentra en Estados Unidos, presuntamente por razones de salud, es que el directorio de la Human Rights Foundation Bolivia decidió reorganizarse en cumplimiento de los Estatutos, situación que fue duramente criticada por Achá quien planteaba seguir indefinidamente en su cargo de Presidente. Due to the absence of Asha, who is in United States, reportedly for health reasons, is that the board of the Human Rights Foundation Bolivia decided to reorganize in accordance with the Statutes, which was severely criticized by those who raised Acha continue indefinitely in office of President.
Según la nota, el directorio “se configuró ajustándose a los Estatutos y considerando que era un momento propicio para que la fundación retome su carácter democrático y transparente, dice la nota”. According to the note, the directory is configured according to the statutes, and considering that it was a propitious moment for the foundation back to democratic and transparent nature, the note said. "
“Pese a todos los esfuerzos por mantener una actividad 'normal y responsableí del trabajo de la fundación, nos encontramos con una serie de dificultades y trabas que vuelven a provocar un funcionamiento paralelo de la fundación con citaciones vía prensa para reuniones, que el directorio formado por Alejandra Barbery, Fernando Cuellar, Emilio Martínez y Centa Reck no han convocado", añade en el comunicado el directorio renunciante. "Despite all efforts to maintain a 'normal responsableí work of the foundation, we have a number of difficulties and obstacles that cause a re-running of the foundation with subpoenas via press meetings, the board formed by Alejandra Barbery, Fernando Cuellar, Emilio Martinez and Centa Reck have not called, "the communique adds the directory resigning.
En conclusión, dice el comunicado, la reorganización de la directiva se apegó en todo a las normas estatutarias, "empero al subsistir situaciones que se prestan a confusiones en donde subsiste el déficit de comunicación y transparencia de parte del ex presidente hacia los miembros del directorio de la fundación, es que presentamos renuncia irrevocable al directorio de la Human Rights Foundation por los serios desacuerdos existentes al interior de la misma". In conclusion, the communique said, the reorganization of the directive is adhered to throughout the Regulations, "but to survive situations that may cause confusion where there is the lack of communication and transparency on the part of the former president to the board members the foundation, which is irrevocable resignation submitted to the directory of the Human Rights Foundation of serious disagreements within the same ".
El directorio saliente ve una movida más de Achá para mantenerse en el cargo. The outgoing directory is a move to keep more of Achao in office. Aunque se pudo percibir que entre los renunciantes se encuentran ciudadanos opositores radicales al Gobierno de Evo Morales, y críticos a los cambios que imprime la actual administración gubernamental. Although it was perceived that among resign citizens are radical opponents to the Government of Evo Morales, and critical to the changes that prints the current government.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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Bolivia: Mayor of Trinidad group denies link with irregular
Viernes 05 de Junio de 2009 01:47 RedBolivia Internacional Friday June 05, 2009 01:47 RedBolivia International
![[Image: cara-pintadas-abi-rbn.jpg]](http://www.redbolivia.com/images/stories/images2/cara-pintadas-abi-rbn.jpg) Face painting, a grouping of former Argentine military irregular (Photo: ABI).
Trinidad, Beni, Bolivia (APG). Trinidad, Beni, Bolivia (APG). - A tiempo de indicar que acudirá a cualquier instancia para coadyuvar en las investigaciones sobre la presunta célula terrorista desbaratada el pasado 16 de abril, el alcalde de Trinidad, ex general Moisés Shiriqui, negó este jueves cualquier vínculo con el grupo irregular. - A time will come to indicate that any request for help in investigations into the alleged terror cell disrupted on April 16, the mayor of Trinidad, Moises Shiriqui former general, denied on Thursday any links with the group illegal.
“No tengo nada que ver con la banda terrorista, yo nunca conocí al señor Eduardo Rózsa, líder del grupo irregular, por eso iré (a la ciudad de La Paz) una vez que me convoquen y allí explicaré cuando me convoquen para prestar declaración informativa”, manifestó el alcalde trinitario. "I have nothing to do with the terrorist band, I never knew Mr. Eduardo Rózsa, leader of the irregular, so I'll go (to the city of La Paz) once called me and they tell me when to call for disclosure statements "said the mayor trinitario.
El fiscal asignado al caso, Marcelo Sosa, informó que se investiga a nueve ex oficiales de las Fuerzas Armadas por presuntamente conformar un “anillo militar” del grupo liderado por Rózsa Flores. The prosecutor assigned to the case, Marcelo Sosa, researchers reported that nine former officers of the armed forces for allegedly forming a "ring military group led by Rózsa Flores.
Los investigados son los generales retirados Lucio Áñez Rivera, Gelafio Santiesteban Hurtado, Gary Prado Salmón, Raúl Gantier Pacheco, Herlan Camacho Mancilla, Moisés Shriqui Bejarano y Bernardo Chávez Ortiz, además del teniente coronel Zoilo Salces Sepúlveda y el teniente Óscar Zabala, ambos retirados de las Fuerzas Armadas. Researchers are the retired generals Añez Lucio Rivera, Gelafio Santiesteban Hurtado, Gary Prado Salmon, Raul Pacheco Ganti, Camacho Herles Mancilla, Moses Shriqui Bejarano Ortiz and Bernardo Chavez also Zoilo Salces of Lieutenant Colonel and Lieutenant Oscar Sepúlveda Zabala, both retired the Armed Forces.
Por su parte, Shiriqui aseguró que en estos tres años de lucha por las autonomías ha tenido relaciones con una serie de ciudadanos nacionales e internacionales “a quienes no les preguntamos quiénes son y cuáles son sus antecedentes”. For its part, Shiriqui said that in these three years of struggle for autonomy has had relations with a number of national and international citizens "who do not ask them who they are and what their background."
El pasado 16 de abril, un grupo de elite de la policía boliviana desbarató a una presunta célula terrorista que se encontraba alojada en el hotel Las Américas, en la ciudad de Santa Cruz. On April 16, an elite group of the Bolivian police thwarted an alleged terrorist cell that was housed in the Las Americas hotel in Santa Cruz. Abatió al ciudadano boliviano - croata ñ húngaro, Eduardo Rózsa Flores, presunto líder del grupo irregular y también murieron el irlandés Michel Dwyer y el rumano Arpád Magyorosi, en tanto fueron capturados el boliviano ñ croata Mario Tadic Astorga y el húngaro Elöd Tóasó y actualmente guardan detención en el penal de San Pedro en la ciudad de La Paz. Citizens hit boliviano - Croatian Hungarian ñ, Eduardo Rózsa Flores, alleged leader of the group were killed illegally and the Irish and Romanian Michel Dwyer Arpád Magyorosi, both were captured in the Bolivian ñ Croatian Mario Astorga Tadic and the Hungarian elodes Tóasó and are currently detention in the prison of San Pedro in La Paz.
El grupo irregular tenía planificado presuntamente asesinar al presidente Evo Morales y otras autoridades nacionales y departamentales, así como lograr la secesión de Santa Cruz. The group allegedly planned was illegal to assassinate the president Evo Morales and other national and departmental authorities, as well as to achieve the secession of Santa Cruz.
Al ser interrogados, los implicados detallaron una serie de nombres de líderes regionales y empresarios cruceños como financiadores del grupo terrorista. When questioned, involved a detailed set of names of regional leaders and businessmen Cruz as financiers of the terrorist group.
Alrededor de 42 personas han prestado declaración informativa ante el fiscal Sosa por su presunta implicancia en el caso terrorismo. Around 42 people have given statements to the prosecutor Sosa for their alleged implication in the terrorism case.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
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“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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This company has been mentioned as financing the cell. It has links to one of the 'uncles' mentioned by Rosza in a previous post posted today. Makes me wonder about the Russian casinos too. Seems that they sublet their license to print money and that there are many more outlets for gambling than there is supposed to be. Nice little cash flow there.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl....com.bo%2F
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
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Explosive information presumably leaked by Bolivian security services.
So, MSM does its utmost to limit and play down its geopolitical significance. :call2:
Quote:June 7, 2009
Hunt for two more Irishmen in Bolivian death plot probe
Mark Tighe and Annie Murphy
Bolivian authorities are seeking two Irish-passport holders, including a former member of the defence forces, who they say had links to the group accused of plotting to assassinate the president, Evo Morales.
Michael Dwyer, from Tipperary, was shot dead along with two others in Santa Cruz when Bolivian special forces raided their hotel on April 16.
The Sunday Times has seen copies of CVs held on the laptop of Eduardo Rosza Flores, the group’s leader, which security sources say were those of applicants to join his “private army”.
Two of the CVs are from Irish passport-holders, one of whom originally comes from Hungary. They are not among the three eastern Europeans known to have worked with Dwyer at IRMS, the security firm that protects Shell’s gas-pipeline project in Mayo.
Dwyer told his family he was going to Bolivia for a “training course”. At this stage police merely want to question the two Irishmen, who have not been accused of wrongdoing. They want to know what contacts they had with Flores and Dwyer and how they became aware of Flores’s recruitment process. One has a home address in the midlands and, according to his CV, served in the Irish Army in the 1990s. He then worked for a private security firm in the Middle East. An army spokesman said yesterday that the man is, in fact, a serving member of the reserve forces.
The second man is Erik Imre Benedek. His address was listed as Mayo, but yesterday he was in Hungary from where he confirmed he had known Dwyer. He worked as a security guard in Hungary, then for IRMS.
A senior investigator said: “[Flores] was trying to put together an elite armed organisation.” There is no evidence that these men had any knowledge of what he was planning.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...446755.ece
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
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21-06-2009, 11:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 21-06-2009, 11:27 PM by Jan Klimkowski.)
From a Russian "online culture" site.
However, more accurately, I suspect this is a Bolivian intelligence briefing of a Russian intelligence organ.
So spooky... but with a certain ring of truth.... :vroam:
Quote:It was evident that the organiser and head of the group destroyed in Santa Cruz was Eduardo Rozsa Flores, killed in the hotel “Las Americas.” Rozsa is regarded as a national hero in Croatia. This character with an adventurist strain had always yearned to be in the focus of attention, purposefully building up an image of a romantic selfless champion of any just cause. He was born in Santa Cruz, with his father a Hungarian and his mother – a Spaniard. Rozsa came to the Balkans in 1991 to cover armed conflicts in the region for the Spanish newspaper “La Vanguardia” and the BBC. However, the role of a passive viewer soon bored him, so he joined the Croatian National Guard, becoming its first-ever foreign volunteer. Some time later he was entrusted with formation of the First International unit in the Croatian army. He was given the rank of colonel and by the personal order of Croatian president Tujman he became a citizen of Croatia.
Rozsa wrote books, and was shot in an apotheosis film about his fight with “Serbian aggressors.” But Rozsa was silent about some of the episodes of his biography. It was known that he had something to do with the killings of two journalists – the Swiss Wurtenberg and Briton Jenks. There was serious evidence, but “war wiped it all out.”
Before leaving for Bolivia, just in case Rozsa gave an interview to a journalist of the state Hungarian MTV channel, saying: “Should something happen to me, air the news immediately!” Rozsa was not too open in his interview, but there was something of interest. In particular he said: “We are all set to declare independence of (several riotous Bolivian autonomous provinces) and the establishment of a new country.” Rozsa admitted that he had been “invited“to Santa Cruz by middlemen acting on errands of local authorities for the purpose of “organising defence” in connection with the threat of violence on the part of the central authorities. Of course Rozsa did not tell anything concrete about his contacts in Santa Cruz, the sources of funding and the channels of weapons delivery, just dropping a hint that the rioters would act using “peaceful means, but demonstrating their strength.”
By then the tensions in Bolivia were at its highest. The government’s dialogue with the regional opposition was severed. In the north of the country near the city of Pando the Peruvian and Brazilian mercenaries attacked the manifestation of the supporters of president Morales, killing 35 people and wounding at leas 100 others. The organisers of the massacre, including the Pando prefect fled to Brazil. Confrontation was also growing in other “riotous” departments.
Rozsa and his group penetrated Bolivia using secret paths from Brazil. Losing no time in the conditions of conspiracy work began to consolidate the semi-military formations made up of mainly young people connected with the “Civil Committee for the Defence of Santa Cruz.” This ultra-rightist organisation was set up by Branco Marinkovic, a major land-owner of the Croatian descent. According to the Bolivian counter-intelligence, no other than him invited the former militants of the First international unit of the Croatian army to Bolivia. He did that on the basis of the confidential recommendation of the US Ambassador to Bolivia Phillip Goldberg. The US diplomat knew what he was talking about being one of the operators of the blood-letting in the Balkans. He had to his credit the “successful” mission in Kosovo that in many respects facilitated the victory won by the Albanian separatists. Goldberg assured Marinkovic that the US secret services and their European partners would not oppose the mobilisation of militants.
As is known, Evo Morales declared Goldberg persona non grata for his subversive activities against the legally elected Bolivian government in the worst spirit of “cold” war. Several spy scandals broke out during his stint in La Paz, with all evidence showing that the US Embassy had a finger in them), the “matrimonial duo” of bombers, the US citizens was put under arrest on charges of making explosions in several Bolivian hotels. Goldberg would spend days and nights in the “riotous” departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Taiha and Pando. At times one could be under the impression that the Ambassador tried to show he ignored Morales, as if to send a signal to conspirators: “The sooner you get rid of him, the better for you and the United States.”
The Rozsa group closely watched the movements of Morales and the key ministers of the Cabinet. The shadowing was detected by his guards, who managed taping several conversations Rozsa had with his group. Once he pitied the “untimely” obtaining of information about the session Morales had with his ministers on board a naval vessel on Lake Titikaka, saying: “We could have exploded the boat and do away with their Marxist government once and for all.”
The secret services also identified the pavilion “Cooperative de Telecommunicaciones” (Cotas) at the permanent exhibition complex in Samta Cruz, that was the terrorists’ base station. Regardless of the word “Cooperative”, Cotas is a private company, and its role in the anti-government conspiracy could be compared to that of the Chilean ITT radio and TV company that was involved in the preparations of the overthrow of Salvador Allende. The Cotas warehouses stored firearms, grenades, C-4 explosives, nitroglycerine and other ordnance. One of the rooms was a shop where bombs were made. Another stored note-book computers and maps marking facilities for sabotage and lists of the pointed victims. After the operation at the hotel Las Americas the hideouts were opened to deliver the things in them to investigators. Later they were shown to journalists. Mass media was also given a video showing the bodies of the terrorists killed in the attack – Rozsa, his Irish bodyguard Michael Dwyer, and an explosives expert, Romanian Magiarosi Arpak.
The surviving terrorists, Hungarian Elod Toaso and Mario Tadic Astorga of the Bolivian-Croatian descent agreed to cooperate with investigators and are now making evidence. The search for the members of the clandestine Rozsa organisation is going on all over the country. Europeans that came to Bolivia starting 2008 are thoroughly inspected. The “Argentinean” trace is also closely investigated.
It has been discovered that Rozsa was in contact with the retired Argentinean army officers, the “carapintados” discussing potential joint armed “guerrilla operations” in Bolivia. Assistance to Rozsa in establishing contacts with Argentineans was rendered by Penia Esclusa, the head of the NGO “UnaAmerica” funded by the United States. Small wonder, as Esqlus was a mature (the best description) CIA agent whom his organisation attempted to introduce into the inner circle of Hugo Chavez at the start of his political career (“Beware of Esqlus, - ho wrote to his friends – “as he goes out of his way to wriggle into favour”).
The financiers and suppliers of arms are already under arrest. Radio and TV broadcast statements calling for those who are still hiding to surrender. The res0onse to those so far was nil, not to speak about a telephone call from the United States Hugo Acha, a Rozsa connection, made to a TV channel. Shortly before that time Aca (dubbed “Superman”)was a Human Rights Watch (HRW) representative in Bolivia, thus being able to meet US diplomats on a regular basis. Besides, he was a leading lecturer at the Bolivian Higher School for Military Investigations, being in close contact with the upper army echelon, and could visit Defence Minister Walker San Miguel. “Superman” denies his cooperation with terrorists, even admitting meeting them “illegally.” Aca has no intention of returning to Bolivia, explaining g this by his distrust of “the current Bolivian justice.” But the real reason behind his flight is he is still the connection of CIA residents who guided Rozsa. This agent was just deactivated for reasons of the threat of his disclosure.
***
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=2111&search=morales
EDIT 1: Aca in the last paragraph refers to Hugo Acha.
EDIT 2: The self-styled "Human Rights Foundation/Watch" in Bolivia has actively supported the European/Nazi ratline/landowner separatist movements against indigenous Aymara and Quechua. Its name is a textbook example of doublespeak.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
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Conspiracy, Assassination, and Separatism in Bolivia
Diego González | June 9, 2009
Translated from: Conspiración, magnicidio y separatismo en Bolivia
Translated by: Erin Jonasson
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At the time, the Bolivian political opposition was again using underhanded arguments to block a government initiative. The debate revolved around the new Electoral Law in the face of general elections this coming December. The thing had stalled and the antagonists were becoming harsher. As had happened in October 2008, the social movements were threatening to overtake La Paz, while the president, from the Presidential Palace, appeared in newspaper headlines chewing coca, in slippers, conducting a hunger strike from an old mattress. The rightwing, for their part, appealed to a sense of eternal victimization.
It was within this framework that Evo Morales stated, "My days are possibly numbered. The Bolivian people should know that if something happens to Evo, to Álvaro, to the ministers, it will be the work of the fascist rightwing that is organizing with the support of the U.S. Embassy."1 It sounded like an obstructionist phrase, like the classic government strategy to tighten and radicalize its visceral anti-imperialist discourse in difficult situations. But, this time, at least, it was not merely a tactic.
Three more days would pass before Bolivian society would awaken to newspapers informing that a bomb had rocked the foundations of the home of Cardinal Julio Terrazas, a strong government opponent. It took place in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The Cardinal, coincidentally, was not at home.
Beyond the shock caused by the Electoral Law, this new episode caused condemnations to fly from one side to the other. The opposition united forces and lined up to blame the Executive Power. For its part, the government did not waste a moment in condemning the act.
The scene presented itself as shady and strange. Politically, there was nothing to indicate that the government would win anything by acting against its opponents. It hadn't done so by means of legitimate State authority during the "civil coup" in September and October last year. And, after the "Massacre of El Porvenir," when it decided to launch an offensive, it did so from within the State structure, with the corresponding legal arms. The other thesis postulated was that it could have been a staged attack. But that option also sounded strange.
The Facts
In the early morning of April 16, members of the Delta group and the Tactical Support and Reaction Unit (UTARC) violently entered the Hotel Las Américas in the middle of downtown Santa Cruz. There were explosions and shots fired. Three men fell in the skirmish: the Bolivian-Croat Eduardo Rózsa Flores, the Irishman Michel Martin Dwyer, alias "Mike," and the Romanian Magyarosi Arpak, alias "Carlos."
Police reported that there had also been two detentions: those of the Bolivian-Croat Mario Tadic Astorga, alias "Francisco," and the Romanian-born Hungarian Elöd Tóazó, alias "Alf," now held in La Paz. According to information obtained that day, there had been a sixth member of the group, nicknamed "The Old Man," who had escaped. In a hotel room they found weapons of diverse calibers and C-4 bombs along with their fuses, the same kind that had been used in the attack against the Cardinal.
The interpretations began immediately. Evo had left the country on his way to Cumaná, Venezuela, where the Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) was taking place, and Vice President Álvaro Garcia Linera was put in charge of the situation. At a press conference he spoke of an "international ultra-rightwing" and a "terrorist cell." At the same time, from Rio de Janeiro, the government minister Alfredo Rada confirmed that the detainees had confessed their participation in the attack committed on the home of Vice Minister of Autonomy Saúl Avalos, on March 29.
The media was puzzled. No one dared confirm anything; anything was possible. The newspaper El Nuevo Día simply suggested in its headlining story on Friday, April 17: "Terrorism or Set up?"
"Set up," "show," "distraction," "a staged attack," "smokescreen," and "nonsense" were the descriptions that the opposition chose to use the next day. "Any common citizen can see that this is a clumsy set up, a show. Clearly what they have prepared inside the Convention Center was completely arranged for them," declared the prefect of Santa Cruz Rubén Costas, in an improvised press conference, referring to a search which the police had carried out at a Cooperative Telephone System of Santa Cruz stand in the Convention Center that same morning. There they confiscated an arsenal even greater than the discovery on the fourth floor of the Hotel Las Américas.
A Posthumous Interview
The outpouring of speculation was fierce and pointed in every direction. The versions multiplied while each of the political actors looked to turn things to their own advantage for their face off in the December elections. But the bubbles of misinformation were slowly bursting. The complexity of the case, fuelled by the multifaceted and contradictory life history of Rózsa Flores (see footnote), began to unravel when a Croatian journalist, András Kepes, released a posthumous interview with the terrorist that took place in Hungary, a kind of "last will and testament."
In it, Rózsa Flores revealed that he had been called by the authorities in Santa Cruz to form a militia to fight the central government, so that if Santa Cruz was not granted a greater level of autonomy, it could declare independence and create a new country. The phrasing throughout the 49 minutes of the interview was unequivocal:
-
- "I will travel from Brazil to Bolivia and I will begin to organize the militia, based on the decision made in Santa Cruz" to gain autonomy through separation from the federal government.
- "If those in government do not permit the autonomy of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz is ready to secede from Bolivia."
- "The organizers will provide the financing and weapons, which will be obtained illegally. Probably from Brazil since the arms trade is not legal in Bolivia."
- "We will not march with flags or bamboo sticks; we will do so with weapons."
- "I will not go to the Bolivian jungle to play at being Ché Guevera."
- "I am not going to launch an attack against La Paz, and I will not help launch an offensive against the capital, nor would I overthrow President Evo Morales. We will organize a defense and resistance …"
However, by all indications this last statement by the mercenary was modified with time as different investigations uncovered meticulous plans to take the lives of the president, vice president, the full Cabinet, and even the prefect of Santa Cruz.
Marcos Farfán, the vice minister of the Interior, stated that in the hotel they had found "charts, plans, and documents that point to the fact that the attempts were not going to conclude with Cardinal Julio Terrazas' house, but rather there was a chain of planned terrorist acts. There are reports that when President Morales met with his Cabinet in Lake Titicaca, the terrorists tried to plant an explosive device on the multipurpose Bolivian Armada ship on which they were traveling." That was on March 27.
Farfán added that the group followed Morales to various public appearances in order to study his security system. "Even Prefect Costas was among the targets pursued by these terrorists," he added. Clearly, the strategy of the cell was to create uncertainty, confusion, and chaos.
A few additional phrases:
-
- An overweight Rózsa, appearing on a publicly broadcast video, says "Shit, if only I had known in time about the government session in Titicaca the other day. I would have sent one of these guys (an image of his comrades Dwyer and Arpak, along with Tadic next to a column, appears) in scuba gear to blow up the boat. Every single last one, every single last one of them was there; not one was missing," Rózsa says with the boastfulness of a leader.
- In regards to Costas: according to Juan Carlos Gueder, one of those implicated for selling arms, and a former militant of the Youth Union of Santa Cruz, Rózsa would say, "A dead martyr is worth more than a living moron who isn't worth anything as governor."
The government's strategy was explicit. In the words of the vice president: "It must be established who brought these foreign terrorists from Croatia, Ireland … who is maintaining them, who is giving them money to live in one hotel or another. The government is not going to rest one second until we find the other branches, the other terrorist and mercenary cells, but primarily the financiers, those who paid them to commit this type of attack."
"The International Ultra Rightwing": Bolivians, Croatians, Hungarians, Carapintadas
A Man with a Thousand Faces
![[Image: 1565.jpg]](http://americas.irc-online.org/images/irc/1565.jpg) Marxist, Jew, journalist, anti-Semite, separatist, writer, anti-Communist, member of Opus Dei, hero of the Croatian war, radical Islamist, actor, Blogger, terrorist. All are epithets that, though they may be contradictory, can be legitimately pinned on Eduardo Rózsa Flores.
Upon discovery of the cell at the Hotel Las Américas, little concrete information was available. But journalistic ambition demanded answers, or at least insinuations. Therefore the first job was to do everything to investigate the fallen and the survivors. The search had many branches, but was fascinating nonetheless. Rózsa gave the investigations that exciting component; ambivalent, multifaceted.
Eduardo Rózsa Flores was born on March 31, 1960, in Santa Cruz. His father was a Communist Jew and bohemian, Jorge Rózsa. His mother was Nelly Flores, a fervent Catholic. In 1971, with the coup d'etat of Hugo Banzer, his family decided to go into exile in socialist Chile under Salvador Allende. They lived there until the military coup of Augusto Pinochet.
The Southern Cone was becoming ever more hostile, so they decided to move again, this time bound for Hungary. Eduardo became a student at the former Soviet Dzerzhinsky Political Military Academy. As the years passed, the son of Santa Cruz cultivated a great dislike for the political system that he had once so much admired. He stated that "the immorality, lies, [and] crimes committed in the name of 'real socialism' are inexcusable."
Returning to the Hungarian capital he entered the University of Budapest to study for a degree in Philosophy and Arts. From there he began working in journalism as a correspondent for the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, and the BBC of London.
In 1991, the Spanish daily sent him to the former Yugoslavia to cover the Balkan War. "It was like being in the right place at the right time," he would declare years later. But the logic of the war combined with his apparent search for extreme passions with which to align and commit himself, body and soul, caused him to leave his trade in order to throw himself fully into the military conflict. He enlisted with the Croatian forces battling the Serbs in a war that lasted until 1995 and destroyed Yugoslavia.
Eduardo joined the ultra rightwing Croatian Liberation Movement, founded in 1956 by collaborators of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. He was hurt on three occasions and led the International Croatian Brigade, comprised of 380 men of 20 nationalities. For this work he was considered a "war hero" by Croatia.
Xavier Vinader was at that time the international president of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In the newspaper El Temps8 he relates the stupor of members upon discovery that the journalist had changed objectives; "Flores—everyone called him that—began by sending article upon article until one day the leaders of the international section of the Barcelona daily saw him in an agency photo, on top of a Croatian tank, wearing a camouflage suit and armed to the teeth. They were left stunned. Their correspondent, without saying a word to anyone, had hung up his pen and enlisted with the Croats as a mercenary."
And he added, "The International Brigade, and also Flores—who had invented an imaginative biography for himself—were the objects of an investigation by the RSF team when, in 1992, the Swiss journalist Christian Wutenberg and English photographer Paul Jenks were assassinated. Both had tried to stick their noses into the mercenary group's sinister practices and they were well acquainted with Flores' schemes. Later, further signs of his participation in other dirty war operations surfaced, organizing an illicit trade network in icons plundered from Serbian churches, and a multitude of misdemeanors. The Flores case was condemned from the heights of international journalism. Scotland Yard opened an investigation into the death of Paul Jenks, but nothing prevented him from finishing the war, decorated by the Croatian Army and with that country's passport in his pocket."
Years later he would abandon Catholicism to convert to Islam. So strong was his commitment that he became the vice president of the Hungarian Islamic Community.
His life was brought to the big screen in the film Chico, in which he played himself. The film, which covers his life from childhood through the Balkan War, received several international awards, including those for Best Director and the Ecumenical Jury prize at the Karlovy Vary Festival in the Czech Republic. It also received a mention for Best Picture at the Budapest Festival in Hungary.
He is also a writer: Dirty War is his most important book, published in Hungarian and Croatian, and anticipated for release in English in 2010. In his other works, such as Loyalty, he developed his image as a poet.
With his conversion to Islam, he became a militant for the Palestinian cause. From his blog www.eduardorozsaflores.blogspot.com he demanded that Israel leave the Gaza Strip and that American troops exit Iraq. But don't believe that with these views Eduardo was a man on the left of the political spectrum. On the same website one can find his full anti-communist arguments, as well as many links to diverse Camba separatist webpages.
At the time of his death, Eduardo Rózsa Flores was 49 years old. And there is every indication that, as in distant Europe, he was seeking a new Balkanization in the heart of Latin America.
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[/SIZE] The investigation was advancing, but clearly the publication of the interview marked a turning point. As Garcia Linera stated, the line of investigation concentrated in the search for the ideological leaders.
So it was on May 4 that the District Attorney Marcelo Sosa gave a brief press conference in which a few fundamental facts were disclosed. Based on the statements of Juan Carlos Gueder and Alcides Mendoza, both implicated in the attempts, who had decided to cooperate with the investigation (both former members of the Youth Union of Santa Cruz, both accused of providing weapons to the cell), as well as those of the "key witness," Ignacio Villa Vargas ("The Old Man," with whom the police had infiltrated the group in January), and those of the two detained terrorists, the district attorney linked the cell with the highest political and business circles of Santa Cruz.
Sosa mentioned the former president of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, Branko Marinkovic, of Croatian origin, the governor of the State, Ruben Costas, the present civic vice president and leading rancher, Guido Nayar, and the president of the Private Business Federation of Santa Cruz, Pedro Yovio. He also spoke of the president of the Chamber of Eastern Agriculture (CAO) Mauricio Roca, Costas' attorney, Luis Alberto Hurtado Vaca, the former Army General Lucio Añez Ribera, and even Carlos Guillén, the vice president of one of the principal soccer clubs in the region, Blooming.
Guillén would give Rózsa's group a Hyundai in exchange for USD$3,500. But not only that, he also financed the militia at the Hotel Las Américas, where the cell had resided since April 14. The explanation given was that, as the vice president of Blooming, he had credit at the luxurious hotel. Regarding the sale of the automobile, Guillén stated that Rózsa had identified himself as Germán Aguilera Roca.
In his account, Hurtago (Costas' attorney) was mentioned as another of the financiers of the group. His role had been to finance the mercenaries' spending at the Hotel Asturias, where they stayed for 82 days, as well as in the Hotel Las Américas and the Gran Hotel Santa Cruz.2 It is important to recall that it was in one of Costas' stands in the Convention Center, a symbol of Santa Cruz' middle class, that the group's second arsenal was discovered.
According to the district attorney, Villa "The Old Man" Vargas spoke of a secret meeting between Rózsa and the cream of the separatist movement—Marinkovic, Roca, Yovio, and Nayar—in which the governor participated via telephone. There, the ranching leader (Nayar) would offer land for militia training, Costas would offer a safe house, and Marinkovic would supply USD$200,000. At the same time, Alcides Mendoza would confirm that Marinkovic had originally financed the group in order to buy weapons and it was he who would deliver money to a group of Argentineans, who escaped with a small fortune.
Garcia Linera, from the start, spoke of an "international ultra rightwing," and not by coincidence. The notion that it had been Argentineans who had fled with the money refers to journalist Nora Veiras' accusation in the Argentinean daily Página/12 on April 21.3 In it she points to a relationship between the militants, better known as "carapintadas" or "painted faces,"4 who revolted against successive democratic governments in Argentina at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, and were involved in similar acts in the recent events in Santa Cruz.
The point of contact was Jorge Mones Ruiz, with whom Rózsa would meet in early April. Mones Ruiz was posted as an Argentinean Army intelligence official in Bolivia for a period during the last dictatorship, in the mid-1980s, and, it seems, often boasted of his knowledge of Bolivian comrades and former comrades.
On his recent trip to Bolivia, Mones Ruiz was accompanied by Liliana Raffo de Fernández Cutiellos, widow of the Lieutenant Coronal Horacio Fernández Cutiellos, who was killed during an attempted takeover of the La Tablada Regiment by the Todos por la Patria Movement in 1989. She would later obtain press credentials for the daily Estrella del Oriente, with which she was able to gain access to an interview with the former prefect of the Department of Pando, Leopoldo Fernández, held in prison in San Pedro and accused of a conspiracy against the government and the murder of peasants in September 2008, better known as the "Massacre of El Porvenir."
But that is not all. Mones Ruiz is also the Argentinean representative of UnoAmérica, a continental organization that aspires to be part of Unasur (Union of South American Nations). Until now, its real influence in different Latin American processes has been marginal, but no less radical. UnoAmérica has dedicated itself with particular interest in dismantling the investigation conducted by an Unasur commission into the recent "Massacre of El Porvenir."
To accomplish this, they used the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Implicated in the events was Centa Reck, a member of the executive of the Human Rights Foundation—Bolivia, and director of the daily newspaper, La Estrella del Oriente. To this day, HRF supports proceedings filed by Fernández' defense before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Hugo Achá is (or was) the president of HRF in Bolivia. He is another of those accused of financing the cell. He even has his own alias: "Superman." He denies all involvement, but admitted contact with Rózsa, who, in his words, would approach him as a BBC journalist investigating the case of the "Massacre of El Porvenir." According to the district attorney's assertion, Tadic, today a prison mate of Fernández, claimed that he had offered money to Rózsa. Achá is a now a fugitive in the United States.
In the May 12 edition of Página/12, Veiras mentions a report received by the Argentinean chancellery from the embassy in Bolivia, signaling that in the Department of Beni (in northern Bolivia, adjacent to Santa Cruz) there was "an Argentinean cell of 11 former 'carapintadas' that had joined forces with two other cells (Brazilian and Uruguayan), consisting of former military men who had been posted in the Balkans." The link connecting this international rightwing would be, of course, Human Rights Foundation—Bolivia.5
The Interpretations
"The same faces that incited the capture, destruction, and burning of state entities in the name of legitimate demands for autonomy by the people of Santa Cruz, are faces politically related to those in the north of the country who precipitated a massacre of undefended peasants; they are faces that encouraged the terrorist attempt against a gas export pipeline to Brazil; they are the faces that led, together with others, the frustrated coup against the Civic government and the prefect in August and September 2008," editorializes the state daily Cambio in its May 5 edition.
Bolivian rightwing resentment toward President Evo Morales is nothing new. The battles are constant, on every front, legal and otherwise. That is why after the Confidence Referendum in August 2008, brought on by the political rightwing against the will of the regional right, the separatists initiated their own strategy.
Confirming (and resigning himself to) the power held by the Movimiento al Socialismo party in the Bolivian Altiplano zone, the leaders of the "Half Moon" (comprised of the Departments of Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz, and Tarija) initiated, in the words of the journalist Hugo Moldiz Mercado,6 a "war of positioning."
Thus began what the Executive Power called a "civil coup." The objective between August and October of last year, despite the 67.41% obtained by Evo at the ballot box, was to flaunt territorial control in the region. The measures undertaken to achieve this were the taking of state institutions, a hunger strike, and roadblocks.
In that context, on September 8, Rózsa continued the aforementioned conversation with the journalist Kepes. At the time he assured that he was not planning to attack Morales, that his objective was limited to "defense and resistance." The design was clear. Every one of the schemes sought to find repression on the part of the central government, with the aim of playing the victim while characterizing the Executive Power as homicidal.
To confirm this thesis, Rózsa declared, "We understand that there will be a central government offensive with the deployment of the Armed Forces and indigenous forces." In that same period, the then-U.S. Ambassador Phillip Goldberg was seen in Santa Cruz, where he had a meeting with Costas and civic leaders on August 21. That meeting resulted in his expulsion from the country by the government. Like Rozsa and several other members of the cell, Goldberg had spent time in the fractured ex-Yugoslavia, acting as an official at the U.S. Embassy.
In keeping with former Socialist Representative Vásquez Michel's criticism cited by Moldiz Mercado, "On September 2, in full compliance with the coup agenda, two American functionaries—given charge by Goldberg—had another conspiratorial meeting with four retired generals in the home of General Elías Eduardo, charged with security at the Prefect of Santa Cruz and a man trusted by Prefect Rubén Costas. Among the military men were General Oniveros, General Marcelo Antezana, and General Herlan Viestrox." Three days later, "The director of military affairs for the U.S. Embassy spoke in Santa Cruz with the commander of the Eighth Division, General Antonio Bracamonte, Lieutenant Coronal Dieter Claure, and others, to plan a delivery of military units to the paramilitary groups. With that, they hoped to add further tension to the situation and give the impression that the government had lost control of the Armed Forces."
President Morales recently suggested that Prefect authorities, members of the Civic Committee, and several businessmen created a "Supreme Council of Resistance" in Santa Cruz to convert the capital of Santa Cruz into a new Kosovo and, through this, achieve division in the country.
But the government was never crushed, it maintained control of the Armed Forces at all times and, when it advanced, it did so through social movements. For the separatist movement's leaders, the whole thing spiraled out of control7 through the repeatedly cited "Massacre of El Porvenir." Surrounded, they found themselves forced to rethink their objectives and circumstances, accepting the "Great National Agreement" proposed by the government.
The following battles were less intense. First, the resistance to calling elections due to the New Political Constitution of the State of Bolivia (NCPE) in October, then the approval of the NCPE on January 25, and the last episode regarding the recent new Electoral Law in the face of coming December elections. In each encounter, the regional opposition appeared withdrawn and on the defensive. In fact, it is striking how on the day that their presidential candidates resigned, indigenous presidential hopefuls were deployed throughout the country.
But below the surface everything indicates that the separatist movement had a new card: the plain and simple assassination of the president, along with his vice president and his entire Cabinet. All of which represented a new low, a venture toward the abyss, once again.
End Notes
-
- Stated on April 12, 2009.
- According to the May 6 edition of La Prensa, Hernán Rossel, manager of the Hotel Las Américas, confirmed that Hurtado Vaca made a 30-day reservation for six people and paid in cash. Evelin Leigue, of the Gran Hotel Santa Cruz, confirmed that Luis Hurtado registered the group between April 3-14, for which he paid 13,000 Bolivianos in cash. Rómulo Estivariz, lawyer for Lorena Rojas and manager of the Hotel Asturias, stated that Hurtado Vaca paid around 60,000 Bolivianos in cash for a 70-day stay, during which time seven people stayed at that establishment.
- www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-123612-2009-04-21.html.
- The "carapintadas" or "painted faces" were a variety of extreme rightwing military activist groups that carried out a series of uprisings against the governments of Raúl Alfonsín and Carlos Menem in Argentina between 1987-1990. The nickname alludes to the use of camouflage paint by the insurgents, who took various military bases and fought against forces loyal to the constitutional government in an effort to finalize proceedings against the protagonists of Argentina's bloodiest dictatorship (1976-1983). Although the leaders of the "carapintadas" were arrested, found guilty, and condemned to prison, the majority of the participants in the events went unpunished, and the ringleaders were pardoned by then-President Carlos Menem in 1989 and later, by Eduardo Duhalde.
- www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-123612-2009-04-21.html.
- "Dos momentos del plan ultraderechista," Cambio, Monday, May 4, 2009.
- See "Bolivia: una nueva masacre y el repliegue conservador."
- Spanish translation, http://rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=84909.
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Woof woof!
Some rather intriguing chiens de guerre are slipping and sliding through oil slicks and gas reservoirs....
Quote:JUNE 28 2009
Irish Mail On Sunday
First Bolivia, now Sudan… yet another controversial connection emerges for the Corrib gas security firm whose guards patrol the bays of Mayo
By Michael O’Farrell
INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT
THE security company charged with protecting Shell’s controversial Corrib gas project has links with a one-time rebel army in Sudan that forcibly recruited thousands of child soldiers, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Integrated-Risk Management Services (I-RMS) was established in 2004 by former Irish Ranger Wing officer Terry Downes and Jim Farrell, an ex-Ranger Wing Regimental Sergeant Major.
During their top-secret military careers, both men specialised in anti-terrorist intervention and were subject to the Official Secrets Act.
But as well as expanding his Irish business, Mr Downes has forged a new partnership with a security company that operates in more than half a dozen countries throughout east Africa.
The MoS has established that Mr Downes is the CEO of a new African company called KK Lodgit, based in Nairobi.
Speaking this week from Kenya, KK Lodgit’s managing director, Paul Rees, said that Mr Downes travelled to Nairobi to oversee affairs at least twice a month.
He also indicated that the new firm – a cash transit business – had withheld its website due to the risk of exposure to protesters in Ireland who were objecting to the Shell gas project.
I-RMS, based in Naas, Co. Kildare, has kept its own website off line since former employee Michael Dwyer was controversially shot by security forces in Bolivia two months ago. That site used to refer to an I-RMS subsidiary called I-RMS Africa, based in Nairobi, although, in a search of company files at the attorney general’s office in Nairobi, the MoS was unable to locate the existence of any such firm . Neither is the African subsidiary mentioned in any of the Irish company accounts.
KK Lodgit is a joint venture between Mr Downes and KK Security – perhaps the best-known security firm in Kenya, with operations in countries including Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Sudan.
KK Security’s operations are headed up in each country by a variety of former special-forces soldiers from Britain, the US and elsewhere, giving Mr Downes a ready-made network of intelligence and security contacts in east Africa.
But the Sudanese branch is led up by Machar Bading Jageah Gien, a serving officer in the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) – a rebel force that infamously press-ganged up to 12,000 child soldiers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The abductions, detentions and marches across hundreds of kilometres of desert are well documented by organisations such as the UN and Human Rights Watch.
One such NGO report, entitled ‘The Lost Boys’, describes in detail the removal of boys from southern Sudan by the SPLA, describing the process as ‘warehousing’ children for subsequent use in the war.
Although the SPLA is credited with being the first African rebel group to move, in 2000, to end the use of child soldiers, isolated abductions continue.
Last year’s UNHCR report on child soldiers cited UN evidence confirming the ‘presence of children associated with SPLA forces in southern Sudan’. The youngest was nine and the average, 16.
Nevertheless, the Christian SPLA and its political wing have been supported by the West against the Muslim militias which are backed by the government in Khartoum. Since a peace deal in 2005, the SPLA is the main constituent of the government of the semi-autonomous south.
Consequently, UN agencies and the World Bank now count themselves as clients of KK Security in Sudan, despite its connections with rebel groups responsible for atrocities.
KK also provides security for a number of UN missions as well as US and Canadian embassies. The firm is credited with pioneering the use of unarmed security guards to combat spiralling gun violence in cities such as Nairobi. But the link between Mr Downes and a firm associated with Sudanese rebels along the Nile will be seized upon by anti-Shell protesters in Ireland who accuse the firm of using excessive force against protesters here.
I-RMS has been at the centre of ongoing complaints from protesters and has been linked to violent farright extremists since the April death of Tipperary man and I-RMS employee Michael Dwyer in Bolivia.
Mr Dwyer and his right-wing associates, I-RMS workers he met on the Corrib gas project, are accused of plotting to kill Bolivian president Evo Morales.
Although there is no evidence to suggest any I-RMS involvement, mysterious events at the Corrib site, including the alleged sinking of a trawler by masked frogmen two weeks ago, continue to dominate the headlines.
In the wake of the negative publicity, the firm has recently hired Dan Pender, a former PR advisor to Martin Cullen, to look after its press affairs.
The firm was also involved in providing security for the controversial Oasis gig at Slane Castle last weekend – where complaints centred on the ineffectiveness of the security rather than any heavy-handedness.
But with its two-year security contractor’s licence with the Private Security Authority (PSA) up for renewal in August, the complaints against I-RMS are about as welcome as a fisherman in Broadhaven Bay.
Nevertheless, in a statement, the PSA said all these complaints had been satisfactorily dealt with and Mr Pender said his clients were confident there would be no issue with the renewal.
But despite the fact that Mr Downes has publicly spoken of an E8m turnover, the most recent I-RMS accounts, for 2007, show credit and debit figures well below €500,000, with losses in the region of €100,000.
And though the company has claimed to employ over 300 staff, the accounts do not show any PRSI or wage costs, while corporation tax has ranged from just over E600 in 2006 to zero in 2007.
The accounts of other companies owned by Mr Farrell and Mr Downes – Mobile ATM Ltd and European Logistics Security Ltd – also show negligible revenues. There is no mention in any of the annual returns of any subsidiary in Africa. The company did not respond to questions about these apparent inconsistencies but issued a statement to say it ‘works with respected clients in Ireland, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East’.
‘Our employees are trained by fully qualified and certified professionals in Ireland and the UK only& Our services include cash-in-transit, which we operate under our Lodgit brand here in Ireland and in partnership with KK Lodgit internationally. We also provide security briefings and training for people such as journalists, businesses and NGOs visiting hostile security environments,’ the statement said.
http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/06/30...le-rebels/
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The Shadow over Erris: Shell, IRMS and Bolivia
Wednesday July 01, 2009 18:47by Andrew - WSM (personal capacity)
Sometimes monsters do exist In any country with a half way critical media, the last few months would have been disastrous for Shell. In a http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92854 in Shell’s imposition of an experimental gas pipeline on the people of Erris it emerges that Michael Dwyer, one of the security guards on this project, was part of an attempt to trigger a civil war in Bolivia. Soon after that it became clear that at least three others who had worked as security guards at the Shell compound had travelled to Bolivia with Dwyer and were wanted there for questioning. Some, it emerged, had links to fascist organizations in Eastern Europe. ![[Image: michaeldwyer4guns.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/michaeldwyer4guns.jpg)
Michael Dwyer posing with pistols in Bolivia
At least 156 private security personnel work on what Shell calls the 'Corrib Project' accompanied, according to the Irish Times, by up to “Several hundred Gardaí and the Naval Service .. with the Naval Service deploying one and “possibly” two patrol ships”. (1) The level of force being deployed to impose the Shell pipeline project on the local population is a testimony to the long running resistance of the people of Erris, a resistance that so far has not been broken by dozens of arrests, violence and the most vitriolic of attacks from paid hacks in the mainstream media.
At the time of writing everyone is preparing for the return of the pipe laying ship, the Soltaire. In advance of its return strange events have occurred in the dead of night. One Shell to Sea protester, Willie Corduff, required hospitalization after an encounter with masked men at the Shell compound at 4am on Thursday April 23rd. The fishing boat of another key Shell to Sea activist, Pat O’Donnell, was boarded at 2am on Thursday 11th June by four masked and armed men who proceed to sink the boat, leaving the two men on board to fend for themselves. What is striking is the almost complete failure of the Irish media to investigate any of these stories in a serious way or to explore the elements that link events in Bolivia and Erris.
You can download a 16 page PDF file of the article. Lack of investigation
Yet in the same period we have seen both TV and print ‘investigations’ of the situation in Erris where the pipeline is being imposed. Bizarrely these have targeted the under resourced locals and their supporters as some sort of ‘dark force’ in the whole struggle and treated Shell as if its some sort of squeaky clean neutral force whose every utterance (including the ‘off the record’ ones) can be treated as statements of fact. And just as extraordinarily these ‘journalists’ have chosen to leave out the fact that known corrupt politicians changed the rules to allow Shell access to the gas royalty free.
At a time when health, education and community programs are being slashed due to ‘lack of funds’ surely this is a story? Given the history of corruption that has emerged from the tribunals, which involved the same politicians who gave Shell the Gas for free, what might be dug out with a little journalism?
The material found with a little bit of googling on the topic would make for a Hollywood film script, never mind a major expose in any of the major papers. Yet that article has yet to appear in any major mainstream media in Ireland. As we will see more has appeared in the international press. On the margins of the Irish media some things have been published, but basically as the work of one or two of the dozens of journalists who are supposedly reporting on the David v Goliath confrontation happening in Erris. Even in these cases too often the names of the companies and sites these men worked for and on have been left out.
Of course we will never know for sure what the facts are behind many of these events and the connection between them. Decisions to start civil wars or to sink boats are not going to be made and recorded in board rooms. Shell has a long, long history of imposing projects on local populations and dealing with the consequences of resistance. While we cannot say what happened we can bring the facts as they are known together and paint a picture that the reader can draw their own conclusions from. The picture is strange and complex, understanding it requires a little patience but the patience will be rewarded as distinct patterns emerge from what at first seems a bizarre patchwork of colours and shapes sprayed upon a wall by a careless creator.
Dogs of war
In April 2009 Bolivian special forces raided a hotel room in Santa Cruz. During the course of the raid they shot dead an Irishman Michael Dwyer who had worked at the Shell compound in Erris, Eduardo Rozsa Flores, a Croatian-Bolivian fascist and one other man. Two others were arrested. In the following days the Bolivian authorities claimed that the gang around Flores were working to spark a civil war leading to the secession of the gas rich Santa Cruz region. Testimony was given that they had carried out one bombing and were planning a wave of assassinations. Not only had weapons been found in the hotel room but so too were pictures of the men posing with a high powered sniper's rifle capable of hitting a target at 1 km.
![[Image: dwyerroszanyeveguns.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/dwyerroszanyeveguns.jpg)
Dwyer pictured in Bolivia with Rozsa and some of their stash of weapons
The killing of Michael Dwyer in Bolivia was treated by the Irish media as an oddity that had no particular connection to anything happening in Ireland. But how did Michael Dwyer who had worked as security at the Shell pipeline building project in Erris, Co Mayo end up being shot dead in Bolivia? Within days of the killing it emerged that many of the others wanted for questioning were European fascists, recruited by Flores.
There was another connection, although it was more normally hinted at then spelled out. Shell used to have a gas pipeline in Bolivia until less than a year before Dywer met his death. President Morales had announced the nationalization of this pipeline at the start of June 2008 after claiming that the holding company, which Shell had a 25% stake in, had “conspired against his government.” This was four months before Dwyer left the Shell compound in Glengad with a number of his fellow security guards for Bolivia.(2)
The Phoenix was one media outlet that has dared to put some of the connections into print, and that fact that this magazine is read by just about every journalist means that the rest of the media can’t plead ignorance of the facts. In an article titled ‘Dwyer, IRMS and the Szekler Legion’ the Phoenix reports that Dwyer “fell in with a group of right wing Hungarians led by one Tibor Revesz, commander of the so called Szekler Legion, a paramilitary movement” some of whose members had worked as security at Shell’s Erris compound. (3) The Phoenix was being cautious, in a Cork Examiner article Scott Miller described the Szekler Legion as “an openly fascist paramilitary group which trains with AK-47s.” (4)
Big-mouthed fascists
Dwyer it turned out had a fascist tattoo and was known to Irish fascists. On the Irish section of the fascist organising website Stormfront a regular poster called ‘Byzantium Endures’ reposted an article about Dwyer's death on the day it was reported with the note ‘RIP mike’ returning a day later to post “He had SS sig runes tattooed on his arm, I know he was a WN.” (WN stands for ‘white nationalist’ i.e. fascist). ‘Byzantium Endures’ was to go on to make some pretty stunning claims, included in them were facts that were not yet in widespread circulation.
![[Image: dwyersstattoo.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/dwyersstattoo.jpg)
Dwyer showing his tattoo with the SS letters at the bottom
On the following day ‘Byzantium Endures’ posted again to claim that “Mike was in Bolivia working for a private security company, Integrated Risk Management Services (IRMS). It is owned by Terry Downes and James Farrell. Both Downes and Farrell are former members of the Irish Army Rangers.” And later that day “Just to add Mike's work out there involved doing close quarter protection work for Shell executives, seems Morales is sending a message to those who oppose him.”(5)
Fascists, particularly the online version, are notorious fantasists, so these claims need to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. 'Byzantium Endures' identifies Dwyer as connected with IRMS at around the same point as this was first being raised on indymedia.ie and also identifies the tattoo on his arm as being fascist in character. ‘Byzantium Endures’ obviously believed Dwyer was still working for IRMS however on April 22nd “I-RMS confirmed in a statement to The Irish Times that Mr Dwyer had worked for the company. It said he was employed as a security guard at the Corrib gas construction site from March to mid-October.” (6) Presumably this difference in accounts (‘Byzantium Endures’ version is similar to what it is reported Dwyer had told his parents) was because Dwyer could hardly tell the folks back home what he was actually up to.
Disappearing websites
A second Phoenix article by ‘Goldhawk’ went on to point out that “Coincidentally no sooner had The Irish Times referred to Dwyer’s work for IRMS than the security company’s website was taken offline to be “updated’” and the references to “special services” and “international armed and unarmed security” were removed before access to the site was again prohibited. Goldhawk was anxious to get details of this “international armed and unarmed” activity from IRMS but the company failed to return his call." (7)
![[Image: irmssitechanges.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/irmssitechanges.jpg)
The sequence of changes to the IRSM site that occured after news of Dwyer's death in Bolivia.
First the references to “special services” and “international armed and unarmed security” were removed
and then the site was taken off line.
The IRMS website was not the only one that went down after the shootings. Another site to go down was photosniper.freedom.hu which was the personal site of Tibor Revesz, the ex-Hungarian army soldier identified in the first Phoenix article as the “commander of the so called Szekler Legion.” Revesz had left Bolivia ahead of the special forces raid that killed Dwyer and since then as Phoenix points out “websites appear to have been falling like ninepins, not least that of IRMS itself.”(8) The material on Ravesz site relating to Shell and Erris was also removed but not before some of it was spotted and copied by bloggers interested in the story.
They reported reported on indymedia.ie (9) and politics.ie that Revesz had on his web site souvenir badges, tee shirts and hoodies “commemorating two of the ‘glorious battles’ against the anti-Shell campaigners.” The implication of this is that he thought he had some sort of market to sell these to, presumably other Szekler legion members who had also worked in Erris. Just how many of these were there, apart from the ones we already know of?
![[Image: glengadssskulls.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/glengadssskulls.jpg)
Two of the badges that Revez had on his website prior to it being taken offline. Note the similarity with the SS Deaths head skull on right
They also revealed that the Revesz / photosniper site had been used in October 2008 to appeal for volunteers for an expedition to Bolivia (just 3 months after the nationalization of the Shell pipeline there). October 2008 was also when IRMS claims Dwyer left their employment. On his CV on the web site Revez said he started work for IRMS on 25.03.2008 but has no end date listed as he had for all his previous employers. (10)
Scott Miller writing in the Irish Examiner got a little more information out of IRMS on June 20 writing "Talking to the Irish Examiner in the Broadhaven Hotel, Mr Farrell confirmed that two Eastern European men who travelled to Bolivia with Mr Dwyer have in recent weeks resigned from his company. He dismisses speculation of any possible involvement by his company in the South American venture." (11)
This backs up an earlier Irish Times report from June 2nd that some of those who travelled to Bolivia with Dwyer were still working for IRMS on their return. In that piece Conor Lally could not find it within himself to even name the security firm the men had worked for never mind mention the name of Shell. He reported that “POLICE IN Bolivia want to interview three men living in Ireland about their movements in Bolivia with Michael Dwyer, .. The three men .. worked with Mr Dwyer in Ireland. The men – two Hungarians and a Slovak – travelled to Bolivia with Mr Dwyer last November. One of the men is still working in the same security company in Ireland where he and Mr Dwyer met. The other two men worked for the same firm until recently and are still living in Ireland.”(12)
Scott Miller had earlier reported in an Irish Examiner article that “Gábor Dudog and Gáspár Dániel, associated with the Szekler Legion are currently missing in Bolivia. According to reports in the Hungarian press, Mr Dudog worked in Ireland in the security business and spent 6 to 8 six to eight months in Bolivia, protecting deliveries for a major oil company.” In the light what we now know one wonders just which ‘major oil company’ Dudog was working for. And why the Irish Examiner, which has been braver in its coverage than most of the Irish papers, felt unable to name that company or to say just where in the security business in Ireland Dudog had worked.
It would be interesting to hear more from IRMS as to who these three men are and the specific dates of when they left IRMS employment.
Naming names
The curious thing about almost all the media coverage is the obvious evasion in the way the sections of the articles that mention or might mention companies and names are written. Yet this Irish Times piece is still significant in saying that those who travelled with Dwyer were still working for the unnamed ‘security company’ and that at the point in the time (June 2nd) this article was written, one of them still was! It would be interesting to know where they were working but then if Conor didn’t want to name the company he’d hardly want to give us that information. Conor Lally is one of a number of journalists who has written about the Erris struggle in a manner calculated to portray the protesters in a negative light, it’s a pity he is so much more cautious when writing about the other side of that struggle.
The international press has not shared this caution. Here for instance is Saigon Daily’s version of events, which is in turn a reprint of the Wall Street Journal’s coverage. The first line introduces some new characters in the story, I’ll explain their relevance shortly.
“The Morales government says Mr. Marinkovic aided the Rósza gang with money and houses.
…
In Ireland, Mr. Révész worked as a guard at a pipeline project, according to one friend and one co-worker. It was the same place where Michael Dwyer, the young Irishman, worked. Integrated Risk Management Services Ltd., contractor for security at the pipeline, said Mr. Dwyer was a security guard for six months last year. The company didn’t respond to an email asking about Mr. Révész’s employment.” (13) Marinkovic was a major shareholder with Shell of the nationalized pipeline in Boliva. The Bolivarian government accuses him of being linked in with Rosza, the apparent commander of the gang. Marinkovic denies this connection. Dwyer was of course killed with Rosza in the Santa Cruz hotel. From the investigations in Bolivia it appears the return flights of 11 people including Dwyer were paid for from Madrid to Bolivia. La Prensa of June 4 named the eight who actually travelled as “The Irishman Michael Dwyer, the Hungarians Tibor Revesz, Elod Toaso, Daniel Gaspar and Gabor Dudog, the Slovak Ivan Pistovcak, the Romanian Arpad Magyarosi and the Bolivian-Croatian Mario Tadic.” (14) Of these 8 men Dwyer and Arpad (a Szekler Legion members) were killed in the hotel room raid in Bolivia. Toaso (also named by the Examiner as a Szekler legion member) was arrested in the same raid. Some of the others named, including Revesz have been named in Bolivia as wanted for questioning in connection with the events there.
The Sunday Mail speaks out
![[Image: dwyer_mail_on_sundaycover.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/dwyer_mail_on_sundaycover.jpg)
The Mail on Sunday exposé of the story, the most complete account so far published in Ireland
In terms of papers published in Ireland the one that perhaps has gone the furthest at this point in time is The Mail. This is a little surprising as politically it is further to the right than any of the domestic titles that have stayed quiet, but then again, its owner isn’t linked into the oil and gas exploration off the west coast. On May 31st the Mail reported
“It is now known that Kildare-based security firm Integrated Risk Management Services (I-RMS) played a part in bringing Dwyer together with right-wing Hungarian elements from a group known as the Szekler Legion - an outfit prepared to use violence to achieve autonomy for ethnic Hungarians in a border region of Romania.
One of those elements was Tibor Revesz, a commander of the Szekler Legion and the owner of its websites - upon which appeals for volunteers for an insurgency campaign in Santa Cruz were advertised late last year.
Both Revesz - who is being sought by Bolivian law enforcement and thought to be still in Ireland - and Dwyer worked for I-MRS protecting the Shell Corrib gas project. It is here, facing down protests from the Shell to Sea campaign, that the pair are thought to have met.
.. Revesz also used his website to advertise an I-RMS close-protection course that included pistol, carbine and tactical firearms training. All of Revesz’s web pages have been deleted in recent weeks.
I-RMS - based beside the Army Ranger Wing HQ in the Curragh in Co. Kildare - has refused to comment about its role in bringing Dwyer and right-wing fanatics together.
But there is no doubt that any of the foreign-owned oil companies present in Bolivia would certainly have an easier life if something were to happen to Morales.” (15) The Rangers and Fort Benning
The Mail article introduces a new element, the role of the Irish Rangers in the story. Who are the Army Rangers? The are an elite and secretive ‘special forces’ unit of the Irish army intended to fill a similar function to the SAS or elite US military formations. A good first source is the Irish Army website (16) which despite blurring the faces of Rangers in photos otherwise tells us quite a bit. For instance under their history of the unit they tell us “In the late 1960s and early 1970s a small number of Defence Forces personnel attended American Army Ranger Courses at Fort Benning, Georgia in the United States. On their return, these personnel were responsible for organising similar type courses.”
Fort Benning, Georgia is the home of the ‘School of the Americas’ often referred to as the ‘School of the Assassins’ because “many of its students have been associated with death squads, and coups in Latin American countries” (17) including Roberto D'Aubuisson who murdered the Salvadorean Archbishop Óscar Romero while he celebrated mass. In November 1989 Schools of America’s graduates murdered six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. The SoA trains the special forces units of many of the armies in Central and South America, the equivalent of the Irish Rangers.
School of the Americas Watch says the school “taught repressive techniques and promoted the violation of human rights throughout Latin America and around the globe. The manuals contain instructions in motivation by fear, bounties for enemy dead, false imprisonment, torture, execution, and kidnapping a target's family members.” Every year more than 10,000 people demonstrate at the School of the America’s on the anniversary of the killing of the 6 priests , their housekeeper and her daughter. As a result of the repression of these protests “183 people have collectively served over 81 years in prison.”
The Irish Army website actually situates the formation of the Rangers in the context of the sort of training the SoA provides (with of course a positive spin) when it writes “The evolution of the Army Ranger Wing resulted from an increase in international terrorism in the late 1970s and 1980s .. European and other countries realised that conventional police and military tactics were not suited to dealing with this escalating threat.” Elsewhere their site refers to “Seaborne Interventions” and “Difficult or dangerous specialist tasks on land or at sea” under the heading ‘Aid to the Civil Power’. It would be interesting to know what if any Ranger deployments may have happened on the land and sea around Erris under the excuse of ‘Aid to the Civil Power’.
The strange events in Erris & motivation by fear
Now that we know a bit about Ranger training and their possible scope of operations it’s worth looking again at some of the stranger events that have been reported from Erris. What at first seems fantastical seems less so when you take into account who may be deployed down there and just how far the Rozsa group were willing to go in Bolivia. Really in that context the happenings at Erris are not at all extreme, quite the opposite in fact. The odd beating or sinking hardly measures up to the bombing of cardinals or assassination of state governors.
Following the mysterious attack by masked men on local activist Willie Corduff at the Shell compound the Mayo News carried the following “IN an emotional interview, Mr Corduff recalled how, after spending almost 19 hours lodged under a Shell lorry, he was allegedly assaulted by men in balaclavas .. “I think they were professionals. They seemed to be big men. They put me down on the ground and all I can remember is four of them kneeling on me. They didn’t use their hands, they used their knees. They squeezed me like a sandwich and they had my airwaves closed off; and my hands were at the back of my head.” (18)
Then on the night of 11th June local fisherman and activist Pat O'Donnell's boat the 'Iona Isle' was boarded by four masked and armed men and sunk out at sea. A Shell to Sea press release reported the event as follows “At 2am on Thursday morning, Pat O'Donnell's boat the 'Iona Isle' was boarded by four masked men and sunk out at sea, near where Mr. O'Donnell lays his fishing pots off Erris, North Mayo. Mr. O'Donnell and crewman Martin McDonnell were attacked and held down by some of the men, while others went below deck, where they proceeded to sink the boat. Both local men have been taken to Castlebar General Hospital, where they are recovering.”(19)
Pat later put out an account on indymedia which included “Pat O'Donnell's fishing boat was boarded by four masked men, two of whom were armed, at approximately two o clock this morning whilst out at sea laying pots. The two armed men held Mr O'Donnell and his crewman Martin McDonnell in the wheelhouse of the boat while another two went below deck for 20 minutes. These men returned to the deck and the two crew members were held for one and a half hours until the engine went out. At this point the masked men alighted onto an unknown vessel that took them away. None of the men spoke good English. Mr O'Donnell went down to the engine room and realised that the boat was sinking.” (20)
One aspect of the special forces training described by SoA Watch falls under the heading ‘motivation by fear’. This would seem a reasonable term to describe some of the events in the Erris area, many locals are on record as being afraid of the various mysterious forces active in and around the area. They haven’t managed to get clear answers about who has been seen filming them (and their children). The limited media coverage of their fears has tended to ridicule them as being unreasonable, when you look at the big picture it becomes clear their fears are very reasonable indeed.
What was going on in Bolivia?
Dwyer's mission appears to have been to help spark a civil war that would lead to the secession of the Santa Cruz region from the rest of Bolivia. Much of the mineral wealth, including the gas of Bolivia is in the Santa Cruz region. Bolivia is currently ruled by Evo Morales, a radical president who was swept to power on the back of a massive social movement and who then part nationalized the gas industry including Shell’s pipeline. It is possible the secession of Santa Cruz would see the rise of politicians more compliant with the interests of international energy corporations like Shell. More in other words like the sort of politicians that gave Shell the gas royalties for free in Ireland.
Branco Marinkowitz is the politician and large business owner who has been identified in the Bolivian and international press as the main leader of the secessionist movement. Marinkowitz is a founder (and president) of the secessionist Council of Santa Cruz. Shell’s connection with Marinkowitz is through that pipeline company that Shell also owned 25% of until it was nationalized. four months before Dwyer and the others left the Shell compound in Glengad, Erris.
The Irish mainstream media have almost universally tired to paint Dwyer as an innocent abroad, at worst a Walter Mitty type character caught up in a situation he didn’t understand. Minister Micheal Martin initially played the same game before going quiet once more details started to emerge from Bolivia. We’ll look at Dwyer’s involvement in detail in a while but let there be no doubt that those he was working with were dangerous people.
Eduardo Rozsa Flores
The military organizer of the Bolivian expedition was Eduardo Rozsa Flores, killed with Dwyer. He left a pre-recorded interview broadcast after his death on Hungarian TV where he said “I have been called to organise the defense of the city and province of Santa Cruz, the Council of Santa Cruz have voted for the creation of a regional security council. I will go to Brazil and Bolivia and begin to organise Militia. The organisers will provide funding and arms .. illegally and probably from Brazil .. I understand there will be a conflict with the Central Government .. We won’t walk with flags, we will do it with arms, we will declare independence and create a new country.”
![[Image: roszabedguns.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/roszabedguns.jpg)
A picture taken by the gang of Rosza sleeping with his guns
The Belgrade daily, Politika, wrote the following about Eduardo Rozsa Flores in the 1991 Croatian war “.. he joined the infamous Croat paramilitary unit Zenga and became the commander of the “International Brigade”. “Reporters without Frontiers” accused him of killing two foreign correspondents in Croatia, Swiss Christian Wurtemberg and British photographer Paul Jenks.” (21)
After the deaths in Bolivia one British journalist in Croatia at the time of these killing published a long description of the events in the right wing Telegraph newspaper (hardly one with sympathies for Morales) “I spent most of my time that day with a Swiss man called Christian Wurtemberg .. His was an intelligent and articulate voice amid the mayhem. So a chill went down my spine when I heard a few days later that he had been killed.
More chilling was the subsequent news that he had been dispatched by strangling - an unusual end in a conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives. Various witnesses have since come forward to say that he was tortured and garroted on Flores' orders as a suspected spy, although the commander claimed he was killed in an ambush.
Two weeks later, Paul Jenks, a freelance British photographer, was shot dead in the same fields that I had stared out at during my visit to Flores' headquarters. A single sniper's bullet to the back of his neck felled him. .. The back of his head was exposed to the closer positions of Flores' forces. And Jenks had reportedly been investigating Wurtemberg's death when he met his own.” (22) Dwyer's involvement
Clearly from his own statements and his past actions Eduardo Flores was a ruthless and dangerous character. And in the hearings that have been happening in Bolivia the evidence heard does not paint Dwyer as an outsider but rather as Rosza’s right hand man and possibly his bodyguard.
“According to Bolivian media reports, Mr Gueder Bruno said he attended meetings along with Mr Dwyer during which the killing of local politicians was discussed. .. This evidence was backed up by a video showing Mr Dwyer at a meeting in which the possible assassination of Bolivia’s Socialist president, Evo Morales, was discussed by Mr Flores.” (23) Bolivian TV showed pictures of Dwyer and others posing with a variety of weapons including a high-powered sniper rifle accurate to over a kilometer. (24)
![[Image: elodtoaso3withsniper.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/elodtoaso3withsniper.jpg)
Toaso pictured with the sniper rifle that can hit targets at a range of 1km
Other reports of the testimony reveal that “Gueder Bruno, a member of the far-right Santa Cruz Youth Council (UJC) and charged with terrorist crimes, admitted on Thursday that he supplied arms to the group led by the Bolivian-Croat, Eduardo Rozsa, organizer of a cell of international mercenaries who were planning an assassination in Bolivia. .. “I withdrew from the project of locating weapons when Rozsa said, in the second meeting, that he wanted to target the Governor of Santa Cruz” .. Gueder Bruno said that the Paraguayan Mendoza Malavi, and also Magyarosi Arpad, Michael Dwyer and Eduardo Rozsa Flores were at both meetings.” (25)
Perhaps most damning off all was the La Prensa report that “the statement of the arrested Mario Tadic .. said the people who carried out the attack on the house of Cardinal Terrazas July were Eduardo Rózsa Flores and Michael Martin Dwyer. In one paragraph he stated that ‘The day the thing exploded at the home of the Cardinal, Eduardo and Mike arrived at about one o'clock in the morning and boasted of what was done: 'We threw that one at him and now we'll see what will happen'. Mike's face was frightening in his joy".” (26) The day before Dwyer was shot the home of the Cardinal of Santa Cruz had been attacked with dynamite. The Cardinal was actually a supporter of the sucessionists, the purpose of the attack appears to have been to stir up their own supporters.
Why the fascist involvement?
This is a complex story. One that stretches from the isolation of western Ireland to Bolivia, from the elite wing of the Irish Army to shadowy eastern European fascist organizations and far right mercenary plots. It reads like a bad B-movie plot. But the bodies in the Santa Cruz hotel room are real enough as are the sinister and strange events in Erris around the Shell compound there.
There are two common aspects to these geographically separate stories. In both a Shell pipeline plays a significant role. In both some of the foot soldiers are recruited from fascist organizations to fight and in the Bolivian case die for interests they perhaps did not fully understand. But what would a load of European fascists be doing getting involved in a Bolivian coup?
An article published on indymedia.ie by Fionuala Cregan shortly after Dwyer's death explains this in detail. She wrote that the secessionist groups “include “the Unión Juvenil Cruceña (Union of Cruzeno Youth): a youth group with open neo-Nazism sentiments and which has been involved in frequent violent mob attacks against the local indigenous population, and Nacion Camba, an openly racist organization formed of local “intellectuals”. The Nacion Camba web site is quoted to illustrate this as follows “In general Bolivia is perceived to be a fundamentally Andean country made up of aymara and quechua – a backward and miserable ethnicity .. whose bureaucratic centre in La Paz exploits our economic wealth, condemning us to backwardness .. but there is another side to Bolivia, the 30% of the population who are based in the east and who are made up Mestizos (mixed race European and indigenous).”
It’s a common fantasy among many fascists of carrying out acts of provocation which will spark off a ‘race war’. It appears that circumstances in Bolivia probably gave Flores a recruiting argument that went beyond financial reward. Certainly Dwyer’s friend on a Stormfront had been exposed to these arguments when he wrote “Whites in Bolivia are under seige from the commie govt, no different then in South Africa, thankfully they are getting organised and trying to create their own homeland. Most Whites in Bolivia are v racially aware. Mike was just unlucky murdered by a commie despot to justify further anti White oppression.”
These fascists are simply useful idiots in the global corporate game of gaining control over energy resources. They are something of a distraction from the real story here, except as an illustration of just how careless IRMS were in terms of recruitment for the Corrib site. A carelessness that may not have ended with the deaths in Santa Cruz for the News of the World of June 6th carried an article on a secret fascist meeting in Dublin where they reported “Another attendee, Thor, claimed he worked in security on the Corrib project in Co. Mayo, where he regularly "bust heads". He also claimed he had contacted members of the far-right linked to the recent failed assassination plot, which ended in the death of Irishman Michael Dwyer.” (27) He posts as thor1488 on the fascist website Stormfront where he taunted other fascists in one post that "you advocate the political route, the legal,above board, public face of the wn cause, while i am a member of the underground who is willing to use direct action against the antifa, swp and the rest of the unwashed." (28)
None of the events in Bolivia directly involve Shell. The corporation is always at least one step, if not more, removed from events on the ground. Outside of Stormfront (hardly the most reliable of sources) none of the Bolivian plotters have been named as directly working for the corporation at that point in time. That said we don’t know who the “major oil company” that Dudog worked for in Bolivia and to who Scott Miller referred to in the Irish Examiner is.
Shell, Nigeria and the New York settlement
Shell have just settled out of court in New York to avoid a trial for complicity in the decision to hang Ken Saro-Wiwa, Dr. Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Baribo Bera, Saturday Dobee, Felix Nwate, Nordu Eawo, Paul Levura and Daniel Gboko in Nigeria. (29) The settlement means the evidence will not now be heard but in advance of the trail Reuters reported that “Lawyers for the plaintiffs say evidence in the trial will include documents in which Shell called Saro-Wiwa a threat that should be eliminated.” According to a Bloomberg report “The plaintiffs claim Shell’s Nigerian unit assisted the government in the abuse and murder of opponents of the company’s operations in the Niger Delta. .. Shell recruited Nigerian police and military to attack villages and suppress the movement.” (30)
Rather unsurprisingly in advance of the trial Shell spokeswoman Robin Lebovitz said the allegations are "without merit." After the 15.5 million dollar settlement by Shell The Guardian wrote that " What it suggests is that Shell wants to bury the facts about what was happening on the Niger delta in the 1970s and 1980s .. The settlement stops the world knowing exactly what was the company's relationship with the national government and the military, and the extent of Shell's involvement in the human rights abuses that led to Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution." (31)
Shell’s PR buys results
Shell spends huge amount of money on PR, in 1998 “Shell spent US$30 million on contracts with PR company Fishburn & Hedges alone.”(32) The article “Irish Times Shell PR” in the May 22 issue of the Phoenix looks at how in Ireland Shell have successfully changed the line of the Irish Times over the last two years to the point where now the Irish Times now frequently send their crime correspondent to cover protests in Erris. The Irish Times is not unique in this respect, media outlet after media outlet considers it suitable to send crime correspondents to cover the protests despite not only the bias this reveals but also the fact that crime correspondents depend on developing and maintaining positive relations with the Gardaí to continue to get news stories. If they want to continue to get the scoops their jobs depend on they are not in a position to bite the hand that feeds them such stories.
Such is the success of Shell’s PR machine that when Colm Rapple, a guest on RTE’s ‘Marian Finucane’ show managed to slip in a mention of the Bolivian story Cathal McCarthy howled in anguish in The Independent going so far as to threaten that “it might be unwise of RTE to allow anyone to suggest outlandish and ruinous speculative motives to what was, at the very least, the violent killing of an Irish citizen in the most dubious circumstances of which it is possible to conceive.” (33)
The Independent is controlled by the O’Reilly’s, pre-crash billionaires who coincidentally holds a “40% stake in Providence Resources Plc, the Irish based oil and gas exploration and development company.” (34) The Independent group also owns the Evening Herald, Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and the Irish Daily Star, as well as 14 regional titles and two free newspapers. Plus a 98% stake in the Sunday Tribune. The observant reader will perhaps notice that none of these titles have named names on the Shell – IRMS – Bolivia story although most if not all of these titles have been happy enough to throw all manner of weird and wonderful accusations at the locals who oppose the Shell pipeline and their supporters.
You can see why journalists in this country are not prepared to commit hari kari on their career by naming names in this story. Even if your not a journalist currently working for an Independent title you’d want to be careful of pissing off the family who own a 40% state in an Irish oil and gas exploration company as you may well be looking for a job at one of those titles in the future. And its not like what it left of the Irish media has been a whole lot better with the honorable exception of The Phoenix and the Irish Examiner, both of which are sadly rather small circulation niche titles.
Another consequence of Shell’s highly successful PR offensive is the routine appearance of articles in the media that seek to portray the locals and their supporters as subversives. Sometimes this can be quite farcical, for example the Phoenix points to the Irish Time’s Peter Murtagh getting away with publishing an article in March where he links the struggle to “ ‘notorious INLA murderer’ Dominic McGlinchy” on the weird grounds that “his son supports the protests.” While there have been acres of coverage in the media on that sort of basis the facts revealed in the aftermath of the killing of Dwyer have received scant coverage.
Semi-state bodies
A large part of this story revolves around Integrated Risk Management Services (IRMS). The company that at least four or five of the men who travelled to Bolivia had worked for and for whom two or three continued to work for on their return, at least for a while. The Phoenix has been looking at IRMS over a number of issues and has concluded that “clearly the company has good connections in establishment circles, security and political.” (35) The meaning of political is clear enough and IRMS have provided security for several of the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheiseanna. But what about ‘security’?
We know IRMS were founded by a couple of retired Irish Rangers and that their offices are located beside the HQ of the Rangers. The location alone suggests some sort of ongoing connection, perhaps of an informal kind. After all men who served together in elite units often form a bond that goes beyond the period of service. Yet the Rangers traditionally strongly discourage not only any sort of ‘nixer’ (work on the side) but also any involvement in politics, two barriers involvement in IRMS would obviously cross. Retired Rangers are no longer under these restrictions, indeed many go into one form or another of ‘security’ work, not just in Ireland but around the globe. Their training provides them with a skill set that is useful for many corporate requirements. Is it also useful for the Irish state to maintain an informal ongoing relationship both through individual politicians and serving members of the security forces? In Erris it would make no sense if there were not ongoing and constant contacts between IRMS and the Garda and Navy commanders on the scene.
![[Image: irmsjimfarrellglengad.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/irmsjimfarrellglengad.jpg)
IRSM director and ex Irish Ranger Jim Farrell at a protest in Erris
Is this part of the growing pattern in western militaries where certain tasks are ‘out sourced’ to private companies who don’t operate under the same constraints as the state security forces proper do? The most infamous of these is Blackwater, which deployed 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors to Iraq during the ongoing occupation there. Many of its employees were drawn from a database of 21,000 former Special Forces operatives, soldiers, and retired law enforcement agents. If the US state found it useful to have a militarily trained private security company on hand could the same not be true of the Irish state? On the protests at Erris there is little to distinguish between the Gardai and the IRMS security except that IRMS mostly stay inside the compound. The exception being the Shell security boats which are crewed by Gardaí and presumably IRMS personnel with training in “difficult or dangerous specialist tasks on land or at sea.”
Apart from the boat crews the IRMS role at the Shell compound clearly goes beyond that of static security, at the very least it also includes intelligence gathering. On a walk around the compound one evening in early June three friends and myself were filmed by at least five different private security inside the Shell compound and larger numbers have been observed filming protests at the compound. Somewhat chillingly after the death of Dwyer in Bolivia photos were discovered that appear to show Dwyer and Revez caught in the act of videoing protesters at the Shell compound. It’s hard to be 100% sure of this identification because, as is often the case with security there, the headgear and sunglasses of the man who may by Dwyer obscures his identity. Are IRMS providing a role beyond the dozens of sometimes-masked security that line the fences of the Shell compound?
![[Image: dwyer_revez_comparison.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/dwyer_revez_comparison.jpg)
A picture taken at a protest in Erris that appears to show Dwyer and Revez in the act of filming protesters.
The inset images are pictures of the two men for comparison with those pictured
The government's Private Security Authority chief executive Geraldine Larkin's reaction to what has appeared in the media and to complaints made in Erris about IRMS was reported by the Irish Times as being that the (unnamed) “security firm working for Shell on the Corrib gas project is the “most monitored” security company in the State.” (36) It is not clear what this monitoring means in real terms in relation to Erris. Michael Dwyer not even have the appropriate Private Security Authority (PSA) license for his static security work for Shell in Mayo. The Phoenix revealed that some of the other IRMS personnel named in recent Erris court cases do not appear to be listed in the PSA database. (37) In a court report the May 1st Mayo Advertiser wrote that “Judge Devins said in light of recent media reports about the connection between IRMS staff and issues in Bolivia the superintendent would go back to the DPP about the credibility of the two IRMS witnesses as the DPP may direct that it was now time for their employers to come into court.” (38) The government appointed DPP subsequently “ruled that any involvement of the security company “outside the jurisdiction” should not be examined”.
The Phoenix report concludes with some questions they would like IRMS to answer, reproduced below
“Why has the IRMS website remained offline since shortly after the death in Bolivia of the firm’s former employee Michael Dwyer? When did the firm cease to employ the Hungarian Tibor Revesz, whose web address was used to recruit for the Bolivian escapade and featured a notice concerning an IRMS course involving arms training? And what precisely is meant by services formerly advertised on IRMS’s own website described as “international armed and unarmed security”.” (39)
![[Image: irmshostile27march2009.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/attachments/jul2009/irmshostile27march2009.jpg)
A segment of the IRMS website before it was taken offline
We also know that the armed Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) has been deployed in Erris on at least one occasion and it is rumored that the operation down there is now being run by a guard who previously headed up the ERU. This is a very curious choice for the policing of protest, the armed ERU was designed for shoot outs with armed criminals and paramilitaries, not policing protests of farmers and fishermen. The Gardai have been operating as if they were at war, among an occupied population.
They have shown little interest in investigating any of the strange occurrences in the area. The Mayo News of 22 June quoted a letter from local campaign group to the Minister of Justice which read “Law and order is being subverted in our community by a sinister, unknown group that is targeting well-known opponents of the Corrib gas project . Senior officers continue to publicly belittle us when we report incidents and to dismiss the gravity of these events.” (40)
The Phoenix points out Gardai reaction to the sinking of Pat O’Donnell’s boat was very odd. The Gardai press release, circulated after Pat had said the assailants boat had escaped to the north insisted for a reason no one understands that it would have had to escape to the south-east. And their first action was to demand Pat’s clothes as if he was their suspect rather than the victim of the crime.
This follows on from Gardai actions last summer when the repeatedly arrested Pat under the pretext of Public Order act simply in order to get his boat out of Broadhaven Bay to make room for the Solitaire. As the Mayo News explained “On one occasion he was released from Belmullet Garda Station two minutes before his lawyers in Dublin were due to present papers to the High Court for an inquiry into his arrest under Article 42.4.2 of the Constitution.” (41) Because he had been released the High Court refused to proceed with the inquiry! His arrest, and the prefect timing of his release, was just one example of how the Gardai in Erris have been making up the law as they go along in order to fill Shell’s needs safe in the knowledge that those further up the chain have their backs.
Reviewing YouTube video’s of various protests at Erris shows an often shocking level of Gardai violence towards the local population, some of them quite elderly or very young. Unsurprizingly almost none of the hundreds of complaints about Gardai violence have been upheld. Now few in Erris bother lodging complaints anymore.
The Great Gas Giveaway
Something I have observed in my involvement in the campaign is how people on getting involved and making their first ‘fact finding’ trip to the area return full of suggestions about how the campaign needs to get the media to cover the story. The reasonable assumption they make is that the campaign has been failing to issue press releases etc such is the yawning gap between what the have read in the newspaper and seen on TV and the reality on the ground.
Why is the media, even outside of the Independent group titles so silent? Perhaps it is fear of a libel action backed by the deep pockets of Shell? Or simply that many of these journalists have been wined and dined by Shell. For instance according to the Phoenix, Paul Williams whose ‘documentary’ on the project was a single minded attack on the protesters was the guest of Shell at the 2007 England Rugby match at Croke Park, part of what Shell told the Phoenix was their “stakeholder engagement list.” And the state media is controlled by the same state that is deploying hundreds of Gardai and the Irish Navy to force the corporate project through against the resistance of Irish citizens.
The media silence extends beyond the Bolivian story to the Gas Giveaway itself, the process by which Irish politicians, one of whom was subsequently convicted of corruption, changed the law in Shell’s interests so that the corporation will not now be required to pay a single cent of royalties on the gas it extracts. The depth of the capitalist crisis and perhaps even some guilt about what Shell has got away with has started to see a minor breaking of ranks. The Irish Times carried an ‘opinion piece’ June 19 from Andy Storey that pointed out the scale of the rip off and the fact that “If the Government were to take only a modest 10 per cent stake in these discoveries then the exchequer would stand to gain a staggering €5 billion.” And that this would mean there would be “no need for such measures as the closure of three wards in Crumlin children’s hospital because of a €9.6 million deficit.” (42)
Indeed Storey’s estimate of the value of the gas and oil offshore is very conservative. Official estimates of reserves at the high prices of gas and oil of two years back would give potential values up to 950 billion. A 10% royalty on a real value of even a quarter of this would be sufficient to reverse every single cut in services and wages that has come about so far in the recession and to cancel all the future planned ones. And some estimates of the total off shore energy reserves have been as high as 3,500 billion! That is the scale of the Great Gas Giveaway and explains why both the political parties that changed the law to allow the giveaway and the corporations that benefit it are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect such incredible wealth from those who need it most.
What stands in their way are the local people of Erris who are concerned about the risk the penny pinching of Shell is exposing them to (sending ‘Shell to Sea’ would only cost 100 million of these hundreds of billions). And the small but determined number of people from all over Ireland who have looked at their story and looked at the Gas Giveaway and determined to stand up to the behemoth that is bearing down on them. Vast quantities are being spent on PR and policing because Shell and the state knows it can win as long as those resisting are kept isolated, as long as the mass of the population of the Ireland is kept in confusion over the issues. Their weakness is the risk that outrage at the scale of the huge rip-off that the abolition of royalties amounts to will spread among people in Ireland. That we will become aware that the money which could have funded our health and education needs and headed off many of the deep cuts on our wages and standard of living is instead to flow into the coffers of a multi-national.
This article was first published on indymedia.ie where it generated considerable debate and additional information. You can download a 16 page PDF file of the article.
The Politics ie thread at http://www.politics.ie/foreign-affairs/61194-irish-invo....html was invaluable in researching this article, great thanks is due to the people who spent a lot of time ferreting out much of the information I use.
For background information on the struggle in Erris or to find out how you can help to fight the Great Gas Giveaway see http://www.dublins2s.com
A video based on this article has been made by Revolt Video. It is available below.
1 Corrib security firm 'most monitored', Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 online at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0623/1....html
2 Bolivia Seizes Gas Pipeline From Shell, Ashmore http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aAa...erica
3 DWYER, IRMS AND THE SZEKLER LEGION, MAY 22, 2009, THE PHOENIX MAGAZINE online at http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/05/31/licensed-to-ki...tred/
4 Rangers at Rossport, article at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92303
5 http://www.stormfront. org/forum/showthread.php?t=592157-– visit with caution as this crowd monitor IP addresses of visitors
6 Irishman planned to take part in bodyguard course, Conor Lally, Wednesday, April 22, 2009, Irish Tines http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0422/122....html
7 MICHAEL DWYER’S SECURITY CONTACTS: International armed and unarmed security provided by Shell agent in Ireland, The Phoenix, April 24 2009 online at http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/04/27/michael-dwyers...land/
8 All Phoenix quotes from the May 22, 2009 issue
9 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92073/
10 http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:CD6d87_DTrUJ:photo...gl=ie
11Second summer of conflict looms as ship returns to lay final pipes, Irish Examiner, Saturday, June 20, 2009
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/second-summer-of-c...A2R&D
12 Bolivian police seek three who worked with Dwyer, Irish Times, Tuesday, June 2, 2009, CONOR LALLY, DANIEL McLAUGHLIN and TOM HENNIGAN, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0602/1....html
13 Accused Assassins Lead Bolivia to Target Enemies, Saigon Daily Express, May 23rd, 2009, http://saigondaily.net/2009/05/accused-assassins-lead-b...mies/
14 http://www.politics.ie/foreign-affairs/61194-irish-invo...39911
15 LICENSED TO KILL: Right wing zealots, Big Oil and the tattoo that hid an icon of hatred, The Mail, By Michael O’Farrell and Paul Henderson, Sunday May 31 2009, online at http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/05/31/licensed-to-ki...tred/
16 http://www.military.ie/army/ranger/history.htm
17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Benning
18 Mayo News, Monday, 27 April 2009, Councillor calls for Corrib compromise http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&tas...id=40
19 http://www.dublins2s.com/content/boat-sunk-local-fisher...shell
20 http://www.indymedia.ie/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=92...53515
21 http://de-construct.net/e-zine/?p=5553
22 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/....html
23 http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/martin-rules-out-g....html Irish Examiner Saturday, May 02, 2009, video is online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K23xsR2G68
24 Video at http://www.ernestojustiniano.org/2009/04/revelan-fotos-...ados/
25 http://www.abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=2...17&k=
26 A Bolivian daily newspaper http://www.laprensa.com.bo/noticias/05-05-09/05_05_09_s...1.php
27 We unmask the fanatic plotting of race hate attacks "Face of Evil" By Brian Whelan & Kevin Brannigan - News of the World June 6th
28 http://www.stormfront. org/forum/showthread.php?t=552171
29 http://ghanabusinessnews.com/2009/05/26/shell-on-trial-...eath/
30 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a91...udcL4
31 Shell settlement with Ogoni people stops short of full justice
Payout of $15.5m could backfire now that precedent of a Nigerian community suing a oil company has been set, John Vidal, Wednesday 10 June 2009, online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/ju...shell
32 http://archive.corporateeurope.org/greenhouse/greenwash....html
33 Conspiracy theories belong on the internet, not RTE Marian Finucane and RTE dropped the ball by allowing offensive 'rumours' to pass them by, writes Cathal McCarthy, Sunday May 17 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/conspiracy-t....html
34 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_O'Reilly
35 Phoenix, APRIL 24, 2009
36 Corrib security firm 'most monitored', Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 online at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0623/1....html
37 SHELL’S UNREGISTERED SECURITY MEN, Jun 21st, 2009, by John Donovan, The Phoenix Magazine, online at http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/06/21/shells-unregis...-men/
38 Harrington accused of dangerous driving while following Shell worker’s vehicle
Mayo Advertiser, May 01, 2009, online at http://www.advertiser.ie/mayo/article/11651
39 SHELL’S UNREGISTERED SECURITY MEN, Jun 21st, 2009, by John Donovan, The Phoenix Magazine, online at http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/06/21/shells-unregis...-men/
40 Naval vessels set to escort Solitaire, Monday, 22 June 2009
41 Terror on the Iona Isle, Mayo News, Tuesday, 16 June 2009, http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&tas...id=38
42 State losing billions in natural gas giveaway, Irish Times, Friday, June 19, 2009, online at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0619/1....html
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by Andrew
![[Image: 460_0___30_0_0_0_0_0_irmshostile27march2009.jpg]](http://www.anarkismo.net/cache/imagecache/local/attachments/jul2009/460_0___30_0_0_0_0_0_irmshostile27march2009.jpg)
A segment of the IRMS before it was taken offline
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/13615
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