Charges filed in alleged plot to overthrow Bolivian President Morales

[Judi Lynn]

Charges filed in alleged plot to overthrow Bolivian President Morales
By Associated Press
4:49 p.m. EST, December 18, 2010

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's chief prosecutor has filed charges including terrorism and sedition against 39 people accused in an alleged armed conspiracy against President Evo Morales.

The charges stem from a 2009 raid at a hotel in the city of Santa Cruz in which police killed three alleged mercenaries, including a Bolivian-born veteran of Croatia's independence war.

Morales said at the time that the men were plotting his assassination.

Most of the accused have fled Bolivia. They say the charges are a politically motivated attempt to silence Morales' opponents.

More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-bolivia-alleged-plot,0,332787.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. Branko Marinkovic proclaims his innocence from the outside (google translation)

Branko Marinkovic proclaims his innocence from the outside
Updated at 04:40

http://www.laprensa.com.bo.nyud.net:8090/noticias/18-12-2010/imagenes/branko.jpg

The former chairman of the Committee for Santa Cruz Branko Marinkovic communicated through a video conference with the PAT television network to proclaim his innocence in this case and ensure that we never met the late Eduardo Rózsa Flores. "I am pursued by the Bolivian government and out of my beloved Bolivia, because in my country, my life is in danger, I have no guarantees of a fair trial and have denied me my constitutional rights."

The businessman said he will wait for clarification of "the murder of the hotel Las Americas so that we can from that point to a fair and impartial investigation and carried out by the judge is appropriate."

~snip~
He lamented the situation where is Juan Alberto Kudelka Zalles, currently detained in the prison of San Pedro, who said: "He was a person of my confidence. When did campaigns, which were many and with continuous effort, we took to the streets "to promote the Yes to autonomy statute of Santa Cruz. "If he was involved or not is an issue that should answer it, but no way I had something to do with it and John himself says so."

He admitted having given money, but for campaigns, not for anything else. "That's what needs to be very clear. I regret that he's being used and is in jail. For me, remains a friend of mine. "

More:
http://www.laprensa.com.bo/noticias/18-12-2010/noticias/18-12-2010_8764.php

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_LvP4mWx84Tk/SO9URGbABkI/AAAAAAAALN4/QjR77lUYAIU/s400/La%2Bcorrupci%C3%B3n.jpg

Bolivian political cartoon of the Bolivian newspaper from which I took this article.

[bemildred]

2. Awww, I'd almost forgotten about this one ...

The question is not whether it was a "politically motivated attempt to silence Morales' opponents", but rather whether is was a politically motivated attempt to overthrow the government. Maybe one of these days we will see the evidence.

[Judi Lynn]

4. I'm pretty sure the assassination plot against Morales included the great vice-president,

Alvaro Garcia Linera, also.

That would have been no doubt the whole ball of wax without those two.

The Vice President had been a progressive fighter himself years before he was elected. I'm certain I've read the plot most definintely included him, as well.

They do have a complete testimony from the inside of that plot.

[EFerrari]

5. I don't have the links any more.

But the money tracked back from these mercs to the Human Rights Foundation, afaik, a right wing group that gets State Dept funds.

It was disconcerting that this happened the first few months of the new admin but, after Honduras, maybe not. At the time, I thought whoever wanted to get their licks in before Obama settled in.

[bemildred]

6. Don't bother, I have no real doubt about the situation.

It is an interesting time for the Bolivian government to bring the subject up again though, intentional or not.

[EFerrari]

7. Definitely.

Or, as it looks to me, State was ramping up their operations in Latin America and then, they got wikileaked.

Must be hell to be PJ right now.

[bemildred]

8. Yep, he does seem busy.

"I'll draw their fire, see if you can locate where they are hiding!"

This one was particularly good:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/state-dept-political-objective-disqualifies-reporter-from-considered-journalist/

We are going to have to fire nearly the whole damn US press corps.

[EFerrari]

9. Yeah because advocacy journalism, just like advocacy anything

from anthropologists to social workers, blew right by them. (The 80s are calling. They want you to do your homework.)

I thought I was too cynical to live until I read those cables. We were right. The contempt for the American people, for democracy and for everything just drips out of them.

That's why they want Assange's head on a pike, imo. Because he made them look exactly as they are.

[bemildred]

10. It's all about control. The disobedient must be punished. The public must be kept in fear.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power." ~ George Orwell 1984

[naaman fletcher]

12. advocacy

is that kind of link advocacy posting where you admit you only post things that are friendly to your worldview but ignore any and all topics that go against your worldview, all the while claiming that you are interested in exchanging information?

[bemildred]

14. Well, to be honest:

1.) I post stuff that interests me, and lots of that coincides with my world view, yes, because I am usually right, and that fills me with the warmth of self-approval.

2.) This is my substitute for TV, unless I'm reading something gripping, so most of the time I ignore things because they don't look entertaining or informative.

3.) I generally ignore discussions on much the same basis, boring or contentious is usually quite enough to get things ignored.

4.) Sometimes, as with the Cuban medical care cable you posted, it just doesn't seem worth the trouble to disentangle the bullshit from the facts. Cuba is poor, so I have no doubt that there is room to criticize their medical care when comparing it to the best of ours. Also, I have never been to Cuba, so it's all hearsay to me. And it's clearly a contentious issue where otherwise apparently coherent individuals will flatly contradict each other. OTOH, it is clear that US diplomats are mostly scum-sucking sycophants whose word is not to be trusted. So when confronted with whether to spend the afternoon trying to sort something like that out, I don't bother. And I do know the history of Cuba and US "influence" there. I did see the story, I even thought about posting it myself, but I decided it would just start a fight which would be both boring and unilluminating, to me, so I ignored it. But I didn't criticize you for putting it up, either.

[Judi Lynn]

13. There are some slow ones among us who imagine anything from an American embassy

is probably the truth, and the "revelations" from the US diplomats are to be taken literally! They don't seem to grasp that they point to problems with the US positioning, scheming against other leaders.

Oh, well!

[Judi Lynn]

11. Acha took off at a dead run as soon as the material hit the fan, and didn't look back

until he was safely back in New York, in his safe, cozy little den at Human Rights Foundation
350 Fifth Avenue, #4515
New York, NY 10118
Phone: [phone]

Good old Victor Hugo Acha!

From their funding statement:

Like most grant-receiving service organizations, we do not publish the names of our donors. However, we would like to be transparent about why this is so: Some funders do not wish to be known due to fear of retaliation, others do not wish to be known because they do not want to be approached by other groups or organizations soliciting for donations, and still others do not wish to be known because they may, ultimately, disagree with the decisions and public statements of HRF. We do, however, offer any donor the possibility of being recognized on our website and in our publications if they choose to be.

http://www.humanrightsfoundation.org/aboutus.html

(Who gives money to organizations with whom they believe they disagree????? Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk. Not me, yuk, yuk, yuk. Ya won't ketch me givin' money to people I don't believe in! Nosirreee, Bob. That really could seem a little strange, couldn't it?

What they should have said is that they DON'T WANT TO ADMIT where they get their money.)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_gkfyB62DEUU/S7_pXkMWjZI/AAAAAAAAAwo/XasmrqtNetQ/s1600/hugo-acha-small.JPG

Victor Hugo Acha had his own chapter of the "Human Rights Foundation" right there in racists' paradise, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where he got together on all these other conspirators in the plot to slaughter Evo Morales and his Vice President Linares.

Here's a link started by magbana, which mentions Victor Hugo Acha:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x14614

Another magbana thread:
BOLIVA TERRORISTS STORY - Inca Kola has the latest including Villa Vargas' confession
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x15371

~~~~~
Here's a great article from Bo-Rev on his associate in propaganda, the dweeb "filmmaker"/free market activist grandson of a Venezuelan diplomat (under "El Caracazo" massacre President Carlos Andres Perez) and notorious alcoholic, Thor Halvorssen, for whom he was named:

My Name is Thor. Please Kick My Ass.



Ahhh, the New York Times. Protector of the downtrodden. Champion of the little guy. For years, I’ve been longing for a “day in the life” piece of a typical Venezuelan, and today, finally, they come through. The profile manages to capture the essence of life, the triumph of the human spirit, the noble ordinariness in the life of your average Venezuelan boy.

His name is “Thor.”

His is a heartwarming immigrant story. Our protagonist’s grandfather leaves everything behind for a new life, traveling to Venezuela as “the Norwegian king’s consul,” scrimping and saving for the day that his sons, Thor’s uncle and beloved papi, could date Candice Bergen and seduce the ladies with “his pet lion, Petunia,” respectively. And then fly to Paris on the weekends to fuck French chicks.

Still after all that adversity, our hero manages to make it to the States, where he can live out his dream: a film studio that produces documentaries about the evils of Communism, Women’s Studies classes, and ultimately, “the world’s first anti-environmentalist documentary.”

“What ‘Sideways’ did for pinot noir,” says young Thor, “I want to do for freedom.”

http://www.borev.net/2007/08/my_name_is_thor_please_kick_my.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Bolivia: 39 people accused of operating as mercenaries against the government (google translate)

Bolivia: 39 people accused of operating as mercenaries against the government
By Raul Burgoa (AFP) - 5 hours ago

LA PAZ - A Bolivian prosecutor charged 39 people, including the soldier who in 1967 captured the legendary guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara, had maintained links with foreign mercenaries, according to the indictment, planned to kill President Evo Morales and the balkanization of the country.

Of the 39 persons indicted by the prosecutor Marcelo Soza, 18 are fugitives or outside the country and 13 custody and keep the rest for now remains at large.

After twenty months of investigation, Soza 10 and acquitted acquitted of 61 other research, highlighted on Saturday, local media.

Among the defendants are Elod Toas (Hungarian) and Mario Francisco Tadic (Bolivian-Croatian), detained at a jail in La Paz.

One of the main defendants is Paul Costas, brother of the governor of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, who is a fierce opponent of President Evo Morales' leftist whose region together with those of Tarija, Beni and Pando, was hit in September 2008 by a wave of violence against the president.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5grIxEovI8GVRbe5lTThhKvZYbZkQ?docId=CNG.dcb735c0bafcce31f9ff5a45c53b83a9.1d1
(Put the URL in google translate to read the rest of the article.)

[Judi Lynn]

15. Bolivia charges dozens in destabilization complot

Bolivia charges dozens in destabilization complot

Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 01:14. Bolivian prosecutors brought charges Dec. 19 against 39 people in an alleged plot to assassinate President Evo Morales and launch an armed rebellion last year. The accused include leading opposition politicians and Gary Prado, the ex-general who captured legendary guerilla leader Che Guevara in 1967. The supposed plot was uncovered in April 2009, when national police killed three suspected European mercenaries in the eastern lowland city of Santa Cruz. The accused deny the charges, calling them politically motivated. Most of those charged are already in custody, but 17 are now living outside Bolivia. The most prominent figure among the accused is Branco Marinkovic, a business leader and former head of the opposition Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, who is exiled in the US.

Prosecutors say they have e-mail evidence linking the accused to three European mercenaries killed by police in last April's raid. Two other Europeans were arrested in the raid, and arms and ammunition seized. The killed included Irish national Michael Dwyer and Eduardo Rozsa-Flores, a veteran of the 1990s Balkan Wars with joint Bolivian, Hungarian and Croatian nationality. Rozsa-Flores, alleged to have been the ringleader, said in a video interview that emerged in Hungary after his death that he had been called to Bolivia to form a separatist militia in Santa Cruz.

Branco Marinkovic and other opposition figures have denied any link to Rozsa-Flores. "I am persecuted by the Bolivian government and forced to live outside my beloved Bolivia because in my country my life is in danger. There are no guarantees I would get a fair trial," Marinkovic said from exile in the US.

Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera retorted that Marinkovic should come back to Bolivia to "defend his truth," and suggested his leaving the country amounted to a confession of guilt. He called the plot was "the most serious act of conspiracy against the unity of the country."

More:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9274