Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
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RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
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Rachel Reeves's 'tractor tax' will hit 2,500 farmers a year, 75,000 over a generation ? five times as many as the Chancellor claims because she doesn't understand the industry, a leading expert has said.
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Racism, Violence and Neo Nazism: Politics as usual in Santa Cruz Bolivia
 international |
anti-capitalism |
feature
 Wednesday April 29, 2009 21:22 by Fionuala Cregan
Dwyer, right, working for Shell in Mayo.
The Irish media has not been objective in its coverage of the killing of an Irish man in Santa Cruz Bolivia last week. By choosing to largely critique the left wing Government of Evo Morales, they have played into the hands of a racist elite in Santa Cruz determind to impede the process of social change in this country.
Related Links:
The Bolivian Solidarity Campaign say 'Bolivian People need help to gather information and support'
Article claiming that 'Dwyer worked for Shell Security Company in Mayo'
THERE has been much coverage in the Irish media this past week on the killing of Irishman Michael Dwyer in Bolivia on 16 April. Dwyer, who was shot by police along with two other men in a hotel room in the city of Santa Cruz, was thought to have been a member of an illegal armed group who had received funding from opposition groups to assassinate the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. An official, and if necessary an international, investigation will do much to clarify the circumstances surrounding the killing of the three men and whether the Bolivian Police acted illegally or in self-defence.
The Irish media have been quick to vilify and accuse the Government of Evo Morales and the Bolivian police. Disappointingly, however, very little if any mention has been made of the killings and other acts of violence committed by groups opposed to the Morales Government in Santa Cruz. This omission by the media only plays in to the hands of a racist and self-serving opposition intent on impeding a legitimate process of social change in a country where the majority of the population continue to live in poverty.
Changing times in Bolivia
The first ever indigenous President on the continent, Evo Morales came to power three years ago and joined Venezuela and Ecuador in leading a Government committed to bringing an end to the structural inequality and poverty which has dominated Latin America for decades. In the last 20 years, poverty in Latin America has been increasing - in 1980 there were 136 million people on the continent living in poverty whereas today there are 200 million, that is 40 per cent of the population. This increase is due in a large part to the neoliberal policies promoted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Far from creating development in the region, these policies which call for the privatisation of state companies and services and a withdrawal of the government from the economy have only served to benefit a small business and land owning elite. In Bolivia, this elite is largely based in Santa Cruz in the lowland part of the country. Along with the three other provinces of Beni, Pando and Tarija, the oil and gas reserves which are the mainstay of the Bolivian economy, are all located in the eastern lowlands as is the most fertile land, appropriated by European immigrants from the local indigenous populations during the 1900s in particular. The immigrants were largely of Croatian and German origin and have, over the last number of decades, consolidated power and control not only of Santa Cruz but also of institutional politics, openly supporting the dictatorship of Huge Banzer during the 1970s and ensuring the perpetuation of the exclusion and discrimination of the majority of the population of Bolivia– the indigenous. Largely of Aymara and Quechua descent, the indigenous population is concentrated in the highland area of the country.
It was with horror therefore that this business and land owning elite watched the victory of Aymara-Quechua Evo Morales in 2005. In his electoral campaign, Morales promised to bring an end to neoliberal politics in Bolivia and in particular to re-nationalize the many State companies which had been privatised during the neoliberal era. For the first time in the history of Bolivia, the interests of the elite were being affected.
It is around this time that a number of groups rose to prominence in Santa Cruz. Attracting different members and employing different methodologies, all had the same objective: autonomy for Santa Cruz and thus, the protection of business interests in the region. Much of the discourse of these groups is along racist lines - they do not want to have anything to do with the indigenous population of the country, largely located in the highlands, who they see as "backward" and "ethnically inferior". Among these groups are: Santa Cruz Civic Committee a political grouping which works closely with the Governor of Santa Cruz on developing autonomy statutes for the region and which was lead, until recently, by Branko Marinkovic a powerful local landowner of Croatian origin; 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” who have provided the ideological foundation for the demand for autonomy. The home page of the Nacion Camba website, for example, reads:
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) Their place on the UN’s Human Development Index is the highest in Bolivia and is above the overall Latin America average. Here illiteracy is only 7 per cent and in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 600 international events are held, thus demonstrating its ample and undeniable part of the globalised world..our movement seeks radical autonomy for this part of Bolivia.” (www.nacioncamba.net only in Spanish)
Both the Union of Cruzena Youth and the Santa Cruz Civic Committee have, since 2006 been involved in acts of violence and intimidation against members of the Morales Government in Santa Cruz and against civil society organizaitons promoting the rights of indigenous people in the region. These attacks have been denounced by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) amongst others (http://www.fidh.org/entre-la-intimidacion-y-la ) In September 2008 members of these groups stormed and burned Government buildings in Santa Cruz and declared regional autonomy. The violence spread to the other Eastern Provinces and was eventually quelled amidst international outrage at the massacre of 20 pro-Morales supporters in a small town in the province of Pando. According to an investigation carried out by Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) members of a paramilitary group similar to the Union of Cruzena Youth, armed with machine guns, fired indiscriminately at a group of indigenous men, women and children who were on their way to a Pro-Morales demonstration.
At a meeting of UNASUR on 13 September 2008, all heads of State in South America confirmed their support for the democratically elected Government of Evo Morales and denounced the actions of the opposition groups in Santa Cruz. The opposition was, as a result, significantly weakened.
Events of 16 April in Santa Cruz
It is in this context, therefore, that almost seven months later Michael Dwyer, Eduardo Rosza and Magyarosi Arpak were shot dead by members of the Bolivian Police in a Hotel in Santa Cruz accused by the Government of being mercenaries, hired to assassinate the President and Vice-President.
While an official, if not an international, investigation will work to clarify the circumstances surrounding the killing of the three men, evidence at this point indicates that the gang leader, Eduardo Rosza was undoubtedly involved in illegal activities in Santa Cruz.
Rosza’s is a murky figure with a past in journalism and as a soldier in the Balkan war (see for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/....html )
Shortly before travelling to Boliva, Roszas was interviewed by Hungarian journalist Andras Kepes.. He requested that the interview only be broadcast on his victorious return from Bolivia or should something happen to him. Following his death, the programme was broadcast on National Hungarian Television and in it Rosza states:
“I have been called to organise the defence 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.”
Following the raid on the hotel where Rosza and his men were staying, the police raided an exhibition hall in Santa Cruz and found a cache of weapons hidden at the stand of the Cruzena Telephone Cooperative (COTAS), the largest telephone company Bolivia, lead by Santa Cruz businessman Herland Suárez Antelo and with strong links to the Santa Cruz Civic Committee.
While this discovery implicates the Santa Cruz business community, it is not yet clear who it was that initially contacted Roszas. Evidence has however begun to emerge in Argentina which points to a former military general called Jorge Mones Ruiz.
Ruiz is one of the leaders of the “Carapintadas” or “Painted Faces” - a group of military generals who lead a movement to impede the processing of military generals for crimes against humanity following the end of the dictatorship in Argentina in 1982. During the dictatorship, 30,000 people were tortured and “disappeared” accused of communism and subversion by the military. In the final phases of the dictatorship, Ruiz was posted as head of the Argentinean Army’s intelligence operation in Bolivia where he became close friends with members of the business community in Santa Cruz. He is currently a leading member of the ultra-right organization known as UnoAmerica or One America. Founded in December 2008, this organization aims “ to curb the advance of “Castro Communism” and the new 21st Century Socialist manifestations of it, in particular those in Boliva and Venezuela.” (See http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-123612-2009-....html)
Investigations are now underway in Argentina and Bolivia into the involvement of Ruiz with the opposition in Santa Cruz and the organization of Rosza and his group.
It is clear therefore that dirty forces have been work in Santa Cruz. Accounts from family and friends indicate that Michael Dwyer had no interest in politics, it would appear therefore that he became involved in a group, the danger or implications of which he did not fully understand. His death, in this context, is tragic and a full investigation must be carried out.
This event should not however lead to a simplified vilification of the Government of Evo Morales, a democratically elected President who enjoys 67 per cent popular support and who faces ongoing violent attempts to destabilise his Government from an elite and racist minority in the eastern provinces of the country.
Fionuala Cregan is a freelance journalist based in South America.
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Comments (32 of 32)
Jump To Comment: 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Sunday May 3, 2009
IRISH NEWS OF THE WORLD
NEO-NAZI TRIBUTE AFTER DWYER’S FUNERAL
5 skinheads in graveside honour guard
EXCLUSIVE BY STEPHEN BREEN
more at http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2009/05/05/fascist-group-...ards/
NEO-NAZI TRIBUTE AFTER DWYER’S FUNERAL
"cathar" has contributed a report on the tantalising link which is far from tenous between either at juciest the serving Irish Rangers & their Irish government taskmasters or at least their exemployee sector. & for us who need not be brought through the importance of mercenary activity in the post-Iraq and post-Blackwater age, let me just remind readers that one of the requisites (& benefits) of Irish ranger training and membership is entry into the most select club in the western world :- those without searchable CV's, national security numbers or easily accesible personal records. jahyzus could be one myself
"Fash/FF/Rangers at Rossport"
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92303
Meanwhile, I've more news on the extraordinary guest list at the "Las Americas" hotel in the last week of Dwyer's life. Following on from the last comment which named Venezuelan military intelligence and a Bolivian air-force liason, I can now offer a new name complete with ID national security number into the tale.
Luis Nolberto Clavijo Castro booked into the hotel on the 15th of April (the day before the shooting) using his Bolivian ID card with the number 371590 L.P. . He occupied room number 453 which just to be specific was the one right next door to that shared by Mario Tadik and Elot Toaso the two men of the initial gang of 5 who we now are told numbered 10 & are significant for surviving the shooting be the Delta squad on the 16th of April.
Just in case you're missing all this - the hotel appears in off season to have been jampacked with spooks who were either immediately above or beside the Flores gang. Mr Clavijo Castro wasn't heard from for the following 23 days but his name has now been included after the hotel owner Herman Rossell (who really delights me with how piecemeal his recollections and details are about that night - perhaps he's planning a book) mentioned it this week.
The ministry of the interior then admitted Clavijo Castro's presence and offset its statement against speculation in the santa cruz elite police force that his function on the site really needs to be publically clarified, because it's beginning to look like they really weren't the only people doing the surveillance, glass-against-the-wall-earwigging game.
Of course the people he would have been earwigging ( Mario Tadik and Elot Toaso) didn't get shot up to pieces.
We haven't really heard what they have to say for themselves..........yet.
Nor have we really heard any policy or spin statement from the Irish defence forces on how they view the post-service activities of Irish Ranger or general IDF trained personel.
Odd. That sort of thing really got up the nose of the British and other militaries. & if we remember, once upon a time the Gardai took a great interest in such well trained people to ensure they didn't go off and join the other Irish republican army.
(((Thank you for your article Finnoula and enjoy your experiences in south America - I hope you continue to share thoughts and managed to trace the other articles which opened up alongside your feature))).
I have not commented for a while for tactical reasons - it seems someone else in comments recently seemed to follow the hypothetical reasoning for Dwyer's death (rather than life) but I do not believe that helps the Irish people explore collusion between such people and Shell.
Captain José Ordaz Mora, lieutenant José Garrido Salcedo, technicians Alirio Ramón Ortega Ríos, Daniel Sánchez Nieves and Bolivian air force major Pastor Duran were on the floor beneath Flores and Dwyer from the 13th of April to the 15th.
The shooting of the 3 men by the Santa Cruz delta police squad occured on the 16th at about 4am-ish.
For her part the Boliviarian republic of Venezuela has denied categorically any link between Venezuelan military and the operation by which a terrorist cell was disarticulated by the Bolivian authorities. General Ramiro Orellana of the Bolivian military has also clarified that the Venezuelans were meeting with the Bolivian air force to discuss helicopter transportation issues which included both the logistics of humanitarian aid as well as the travel needs of the Bolivian president, his excellency Mr Evo.
_________________________________________
oh and we're moving on the arms thing too. We now have on display and tagged up in evidence bags a more marketable collection of 3 UZI machine guns (those Israeli types which are familiar to Irish people who follow the Gardai around but aren't actually that widespread in south America) 2 pistols of 9mm calibre and around 300 rounds of ammunition of both 9 and .38 variety. Which really isn't that exciting.
I shan't bore you with updates on Bolivian politics or this investigation but encourage people to push the envelope back in Ireland. Don't prod the mud and murk it more. Let it settle. kind of thing. don't you know.
Here is another article with a critique of media coverage of the Morales regime - this time the US media.
Some interesting points about the fact that when Obama won elections with 52 per cent of the vote his victory is labeled as an overwhelming rejection of Bush and a moment of historical unity in the US, whereas when Morales won with over 53 per cent and later 67 per cent Bolivia is framed by the media as a "deeply divided country"
Have a read...
going on what iosaf said, perhaps the chief of the crack delta squad was up to his neck in arms dealing and knew that flores et al were under government surveillance and were likely to be arrested. He would have also been aware that they knew a bit about his arms dealing (perhaps because they bought arms from him?) so is it not a possibility that he moved swiftly to shut them up to cover his corrupt ass. If this was the case then arrest was probably never an option.
Morales may be a good guy on the whole, but that doesn't mean his staff all are. Sadly the capitalist pigs PR departments are all over this and getting great mileage out of it. Any excuse to have a dig at Morales. How dare he take away the trough and give it to poor people!!
I hope Morales does a full investigation and gets rid of this guy if he proves corrupt.
I read the comment of verocska and I highly desagree with him/her.
The Kingdom of Hungary existed between 1867-1918 which means for about 51 years.
After the revolution of 1848, the Austrian Emperor, FRANZ JOSEPH,
decided to divide his Empire in a few pieces, named by him- Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and he proclaimed himself the Emperor of Austria and the King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia.
However, the Kingdom of Hungary was created by putting together lands the Austrians have previously stoled from other people.
In the year 1865 the Austrian Emperor decided to integrate Transilvania in the Kingdome of Hungary.
In this Hungarian Kingdom only 30% of the people were speaking Hungarian langauge, while the rest were speaking Romanian, Serbian, Slovakian, German etc.
This Hungarian Kingdom was inhabited not only by the Hungarians, but also by many other different ethnic groups, which had no political rights.The Austrians gave political rights to the Hungarians, because their number was smaller than the number of the other people, and because the Austrians need it to put somebody to fight with the native inhabitans of territories the Austrian were exploiting.So, they put the Hungarians to fight with the other people, because also the Hungarians were foreigners and were occupying the territories of other people.
After the WWI the Habsburgic Empire colapsed and all the people who previously were exploited by them took back their territories and they created their National States. The Kingdom of Hungary was divided between the native inhabitans of the area, like Romanians, Serbians, Slovakians, Germans.While the remaining was given to the Hungarian Ethnics and they created their own State, in which the Hungarians were about 90% of the population.
The Hungarians are very upset that they lost Transilvania, but they forget to say that Transilvania was the craddle of the Ancient Romanian Civilization, named DACIA, They forget to mention that in Transilvania we, the Romanians are about 80% of the population, and we had many ancient cities including the capital of our Ancient Kingdom, named SARMIZEGETUSA. The Hungarian also forget to say that they are a group of barbarians who migrated from the Ural mountans and occupied a part of our territory and killed our people many times during the history.
But let's talk about the recent history. I recommend you to search on google after the name AUREL AGACHE. He was a Romanian officer, killed with brutality by Hungarians in dec 1989. He was brutally tortured, killed and his body was profanated for many days by the Hungarians. One Hungarian woman even step on his testicles with her shoes and she broke one of his eyes and put a coin inside of it. Today she resides in Hungary and she is a teacher. I am wondering, what kind of teacher cand she be? She was very upset on that officer, because her father was invastigated by the police for economical crimes. Her name is "Filip Orban Daniella Kamilla". She was not senteced to prison not even for one single day.
After 1989, the Hungarians tried to provoke a civil war in Romania. All the Western mass-media were showing a group of people beating up horribly a man. The Western media claimed that guy was a Hungarian beated up by Romanians. The reality was the opposite, that guy was a Romanian, named MIHAILA COFARIU, but the entire Western Media was incriminating the Romanian people for something the Hungarians did.
Between 1996-2008 the Hungarian Cultural Organisation, which is not even a Political Party, was rulling Romania. Even tough the Hungarians represent only 6,6% of Romania's population, this UDMR party was let to rule Romania for 12 years! About 30% of Romania's State Departaments were controled/ruled by the HUngarians! Including the Parlament Groups which were receiving all the information from the Romania's Secret Services. Of course, which Hungarians extremists rulling Romania, the Hungarian Nazi extremism increased, the created the so-called Szekely Legion and they trained in the Romania's Mountans under the nose of the Romanian Polititians/Police/Secret Services etc.
The Szekely is the name of a group of mercenaries brought to Romania by the French Kings who were rulling Hungary during the Middle Age. The Szekely were Turkic as origin, but the French Kings brought to Romania mercenaried from many placed of the world and all of them received the name Szekely. Today, there are a few hundreds of people who claim they are Szekely. However, the so-called Szekely Legion is made by Hungarians, who are a different Ethnic group than the Szekely. The majority of the HUngarians who live today in Romania, are the descendants of the Hungarian colonised in Romania by Horty during WWII. During WWII, Hitler gave to HUngaria a piece of Romania. From this Romania land, Horty killed/sent to Auschwitz/dislocated about 400 thousands Romanians and Jews. He replaced the Romanian population with 400 thousands Hungarian colonists from Hungary.
After the WWII, Romania was occupied by Stalin. Stalin forced Romania to give Romania citizenship to the Hungarian colonised by Horty and to create for them an autonomous land in the middled of Romania, named Szekley Land. So, this Szekely BS is a creation of Stalin.
In this 2 counties of Romania, all the political leaders were HUngarians and they started to persecute the Romanian population. During the 1950-1964 tens thousands of Romanian intelectuals/politicians/priests/historians were put in prison and killed bu the Romania's politicians. I have to mention that these politicians were mostly HUngarians/Jews/Russians/Ukrainians, but not Romanians.
verocska, I hope you've seen this article. Even the Hungarian govt. suspect there are fascist death squads operating within their own security forces!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/world/europe/27hungar...world
http://www.westernpeople.ie/news/story/?trs=eymheyojkf
SIR - In last week’s letter relating to your paper’s reporting of Micheal Dwyer’s killing in Bolivia, Brendan Cafferty described Michael Dwyer’s killing as an “execution”. There is no evidence to back up this assertion.
Secondly Brendan had a problem with your paper highlighting that Mr Dwyer worked as a security guard for Shell in North Mayo. However the Western People is quite correct to do so. Among those arrested and killed with Dwyer in Bolivia were members of an ethnic Hungarian paramilitary group, Szekler Legion, who openly promote neo-fascism and race hate. Magyarosi Arpak was killed while Elot Toazo has been arrested.
It raises serious questions about the integrity of some of the people IRMS and Shell are employing as security in Mayo and whether IRMS or Shell knew that these people were extremists when they employed them. The Gardai must investigate closely any possible links between Shell, IRMS and the mercenaries killed and arrested in Bolivia.
We should remember that Dwyer lived it up for about three months in these people’s company and that of Eduardo Rozsa Flores, who in his own words, had travelled to Bolivia to take up arms against the democratically elected government of Bolivia. Contrary to Brendan’s suggestion, these men whom Dwyer was with, were heavily armed at the time of their arrest and killing. Flores was a notorious right wing mercenary with very close links to neo-Nazi movements in Hungary and worldwide. He led a militia in the Balkans war in the 1990’s which led to accusations of atrocities carried out by him and his unit. Flores’ aim was to destabilise Bolivia and force the secession of Santa Cruz from Bolivia to ensure that the wealth of Bolivia’s natural resources would be retained by the wealthy descendants of white settlers and not shared with the indigenous majority. Brendan should check out the calibre of Flores before jumping to conclusions about these killings.
The democratically elected government of Bolivia has every right to defend itself from mercenaries and terrorists such as Flores. The fact that Dywer may have been Irish would not excuse him if indeed he were involved in Flores’ terrorism and mercenary activities.
Yours sincerely
Brian Walsh
Ballinode
Co Sligo
Since the Phoenix article of the 24th, I-RMS website is still down. However, thanks to the power of Google cache, the following info is still available online at http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:p7V7KB5pLF8J:www.i...gl=ie
Integrated Risk Management Services
IRMS House, Unit A6, Tougher Business Park, Newhall, Naas, Co. Kildare
Tel: 045 - 408116 / 408117, Fax: 045 - 408114
Email: info@i-rms.com, Web: www.i-rms.com
Daytrip to Naas anyone?
A proper look at just how shallow the journalism from most of the media is on this topic
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/art...6.ece
"These photos shed no light on why he ended up being shot dead."
He was in South America with guns in his hands.
That alone is a death sentence.
The poor guy probably didn't know the death culture of that area.
.
A DYING man has been identified as the figure who implicated Michael Dwyer in the alleged plot to murder Bolivian President Evo Morales.
The terminally ill taxi driver secretly filmed the conversation between Dwyer and alleged co-conspirators which triggered the fatal police raid that claimed the Irishman's life...
According to reports, he was due to give evidence to a judge on Thursday only for the testimony to be postponed.
Although he was well enough to work in early April, he has since been hospitalised and is said to be in an intensive care unit in the city of Cochabamba.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dying-diabetes-....html
We hopefully all take for granted they were not taken in a charming redbrick in Rathgar and so the real answer is :-
Alcides Mendoza's and Juan Carlos Guede members of a known arm running ring.
Two days ago an eyecatching arrest was made of two men who the prosecution in Bolivia say supplied arms to the Flores and Dwyer group. Promptly thereafter in a sign of efficient investigation, collection and adminstration of evidence if not to say transparency - journalists of all hues and remuneration see the photos of either or both speculation here :- Alcides Mendoza's and Juan Carlos Guede's gun cache. Which if true ,and that either or both were dealers in arms and on that edge of the dangerous type scale, would go to explaining the manner in which they were detained.
oh yes. but now today the Bolivian press reports a Startling turnaround
Dember Pedraza,the lawyer for those two men, who were located and transferred to La Paz by the secret service and bundled off in duct-tape, alledges that the chief of the Delta group police unit (who killed the first 3 and did not arrest the penultimate 2 of all the names of which you really only recognise Flores or Dwyer), was part of a gun-running ring known to the secret services since 2007 which included the two detained. Allbeit not detained by the police using thier crack delta group..,
A spokesperson for the government's judiciary department has responded that Pedraza lacks the moral solvency to make such allegations of insinuations since he himself is under investigation for corruption. Nonetheless a new angle which is tenderly political in both itsr national and international senses is presenting itself, which invites new avenues of speculaiton for the interested in this "new angle" to consider how this curious gang of adventurers and farright sympathisers with which Dwyer was bundled up in a vipers nest of questions, was "connected" so efficiently to obfuscate a proper revealation of the facts concerning Mr Dwyers life and death and CV trajectory from Ireland passed those spanking new 9mm's and into his grave.
Evo Morales is expected to order the deportation of members of the "Human rights Foundation", the HRD was founded by Thor Halvorssen - that pal of Gary Kasparov and critic of Hugo Chavez, this forthcoming week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Foundation http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20090502_006715/nota_...4.htm http://www.opinion.com.bo/Portal.html?CodNot=61688&CodSec=8 http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20090502_006715/nota_...3.htm http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20090502_006715/nota_...2.htm http://www.opinion.com.bo/Portal.html?CodNot=61690&CodSec=6
PHOTOGRAPHS IN which the Irishman shot dead by police in Bolivia two weeks ago is seen handling various firearms were shown at a press conference on Wednesday in La Paz by the prosecutor investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.
A local journalist who saw the photographs told The Irish Times that one showed 24-year-old Michael Dwyer with what appeared to be two 9mm pistols, one in each hand.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0501/122....html
Unless these photos were taken during the police raid, they shed no light on what happened in the hotel in Santa Cruz.
Regardless of what Mike Dwyer did or did not know about what his group were up to (and it is difficult to believe he didn't know they were up to no good, even if he may not have known all the details), these photos shed no light on why he ended up being shot dead.
The Bolivian authorities are correct to fully investigate the group's activities and plans, but an inquiry into the events of April 16th can be carried out separately and should have the transparency that the close involvement of international representatives woutd lend it.
photos:
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-what-was-th....html
This below is a photo of the montage put on by Bolivian police today, including weapons and 58 photos of the mercenary terrorist cell that was plotting to kill Evo Morales and other political heads as well as destabilizing the sovereign state and forcing a breakaway of Santa Cruz from the rest of the country.
video
http://www.ernestojustiniano.org/2009/04/revelan-fotos-...ados/
vid on youtube soon, PAT Bolivia, soon: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=patbolivia&view=videos
Im a fascist and Im gonna kill me some native commies
Bolivian cops release many photos of gun wielding would be assasins of Dwyer and co
The Irish examiner article is crap. First of all, the should have got the spelling of names right. Absolutely horrible spelling.
I'm a Hungarian from Budapest, and I had never heard of The Szekely Legion before this Bolivia stuff.
There had certainly been no violent incidents in Roumania. I wonder where the examiner got their info from, I suspect either from the Romanian extremists or from the Romanian government who tries to stifle the Szekelys political (not violent!!) struggle for cultural autonomy.
Transylvania was a part of Hungary until 1920, the Treaty of Trianon, when the big powers took two-thirds of Hungarian territory away. There have been NO violent paramilitary activities coming from the ethnic Hungarians on these territories since then (unlike in Ulster).
The Szekely Hungarians liked to achieve cultural autonomy within Transylvania- which they should be entitled as a minority.
This 'Szekely Legion" was made up of a few crazy people, thinking they will be able to liberate Transylvania from Romania (does this ring a bell?) But they were never engaged in violent activities.
Rozsa- Flores was a very interesting person. He was somebody who couldn't find his place in the world. Most of his life he was a communist, in his later years he became a bit of right-wing extremist, but he was no neo-fascist! I recommend everybody should watch the film 'Chico" about his life.
I'm not defending him or the others but they were there to kill Morales probably. If they were, they all should have been arrested (not tortured, like the guy in custody) and tried, not executed in that manner.
We will never know the whole truth.
According to the Mayo Advertiser, Judge Mary Devins wants to get involved in the controversy now, and is thinking of getting I-RMS bosses to appear in her court. If anyone can sort this out, Judge Devins can!
Trespassing and assault case
Judge Devins also referred to an upcoming decision which was due at Belmullet District Court next month in relation to trespassing and assault charges against Harrington. 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.
These photos were shown at a press conference in Bolivia today .there are plenty of other photographs of himself and the other members of the gang with guns.
So far ten members of the gang have benn identified including the person who paid the hotel bills.
They put paid to any last doubts about his innocence or awareness of what he was involved in.
Michael with Sniper Rifle
Michael with 4 guns on him in his bedroom
....it's an amazing piece of journalism....and scary.
Roll on Rossport!
Finoula Cregan's article ought remind many of us at how much progress the Morales / Linera Garcia / MAS democratically elected government has brought. However in the commercial press there has been little mention of those reforms. But one BBC feature article caught my eye in the last fortnight and at last it has its place in our ongoing narrative and interest be it focussed on (a) the important question of supposed mercenaries or neonazis working for Shell security operations in collusion with the Irish state's security apparata or (b) the extent of an international neonazi style network playing not only a role in the destabilisation of Bolivia but elsewhere.
The BBC wished to bring its readers attention to the role of african Bolivians, perhaps to remind us that in Bolivia there are as many types of indiginous community and opinion as there are European ethnic groups and backgrounds as there are langauges.
"........3 hours drive from La Paz is the region of Los Yungas, a patch of rainforest in the Andes Mountains. It is in one of these green valleys that the symbolic "hidden kingdom" of the Afro-Bolivians is located. "I am the king," Julio Bonifaz Pinedo proudly says, standing next to his wife Angelica, an Afro-Bolivian woman dressed in the traditional Andean outfit of bowler hat, multi-layered skirt and shawl. "It is an immense responsibility because I have to work very hard for my people, my poor people, and we have no means." King Julio is one of the many poverty-stricken Afro-Bolivians. But a few years ago he discovered that he was a direct descendant of Bonifaz, a tribal king from central Africa........Los Yungas is one of the two places in Bolivia where coca - cocaine's raw material - can be grown legally, albeit in limited amounts. Bolivians have been growing it for centuries, since the time of the Inca empire. The Afro-Bolivian "cocaleros", or coca-growers, have adopted this indigenous tradition and work hard planting and harvesting the coca bushes. "We might not be slaves any more but we Afros are very poor, which is similar to slavery," she says, holding a bunch of coca leaves. "If we don't take good care of our small plantations, we have nothing, nothing at all. And we are always hated and discriminated against." But now, for the first time since they arrived in Bolivia as slaves, they believe attitudes towards them are slowly changing........ "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7958783.stm
Needless to say out in the flat lands of the eastern Santa Cruz, far from the jungle edge where coca grows best and incidently two years later soya grows splendidly, the idea that not content with Quechua or Aymara speaking indians are in power, and their flag is co-official, the leftists now want to bring "black africans" into positions of national as well as local power : "goes down very badly".
So imagine my surprise to read a Somalian name as suspect number 10 on the Flores / Dwyer gang list. c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90029?comment_limit=0&c...50935
Anyone known as Gabood Dudob is 99% sure to be or pretending to be a member of one of the 9 familes (in two branches) of the extensive sub clans of the Israafiil tribe who as we know populate southern Somaliland and spend most of their time and energy either praying as good muslims or going to war against their seperatist neighbours to the north known to specialists as the "puntlanders" and the lower quality press as "pirates".
Two members of the Rozsa gang have been mentioned as converting to Islam, without any mention of their Islamic names (which are generally adopted on acceptance of the pillars of that faith) & because such a religious conversion doesn't gel easily with our notions of neonazi-ism (except the affection felt by David Duke and David Irving for Iran) - not much attention has been given (thus far) to the where & wherefore - of the "Islamic connection".
Dwyer told girlfriend about work as bodyguard
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0430/122....html
Bolivians arrest two more men in ‘murder plot’ case
http://irishexaminer.ie/ireland/bolivians-arrest-two-mo....html
Family gets video that claims to prove son's role in plot
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/family-gets-vid....html
THE family of the young Irishman shot dead by Bolivian police have been given a video which officials claim proves his involvement in a plot to assassinate a South American president.
RTE: still nothing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SES9849iAGw
will enjoy this little youtube clip of Rafeala Cotrin, described as "Dwyer's girlfriend" by both Bolivian TV and the Irish Times, despite the fact that she answered that question simply by saying she had met him in December at the bowling alley and they started going out together, in which she comments that he spoke very little Spanish (but more than the mere gracias claimed by the Irish Times last weekend) and thus their relationship was carried out through the medium of international English as far as the oral and verbal side of things would go and get a mention on such a style of quality news report.
Oh yep, she said Dwyer told her that he was working as the bodyguard for Eduardo Rozsa Flores, aka Jorge Hurtado Flores aka Germán Aguilera Roca.
Considering that the aforementioned Rozsa Flores, who is a bit of a household name now, booked into the Hotel Asturias under one name and then the Hotel Las Americas whose room you can see a photo of on this page under another - the question the TV journalist really should have asked was :-
& Rafeala, could you tell our viewers what name Michael used when he introduced you to his boss and what name his boss used in the bowling alley when he brought you together with the wonderful late Mr Dwyer?
Rafeala Cotrin, the Brazilian med student who dated the late Mr Dwyer but missed the funeral.
I suspect that Flores and his associates including the unfortunate Mr Dwyer were not up to good in Bolivia and certainly appear to have been enemies of the Morales regime. However the evidence provided by the Bolivian government and other details that have emerged in the media does not demonstrate that there was a plot to assassinate President Morales.
The first version of the story is that armed police stormed the hotel after gun battle between the men and three were shot including Dwyer and two others captured and taken into custody.
Local officials in Santa Cruz denied there had been a gun battle and pictures in the media showed that bodies of the men were clad in underpants and there were not weapons in sight.
The Bolivian government showed a collection of arms to the media including a range of junk antique submachine guns dating from the 1930's (hardly the kind of guns a financed group of professional mercenaries would armed themselves with?)
A picture (claimed to be doctored) showed a near naked Flores lying in bed posing with an automatic rifle and a machine pistol (the hardcore leader of an assassination plot presumeably would take greater care?)
That latest "evidence" is a grainy mobile phone video of the supposed plotters talking mostly inaudibly about frogmen and Lake Titicaca. An Irish accent says something about "f*ck" and there is some laughing.
Now that's not much to go on really.
I can understand why Bolivia would like right whackjobs like Flores dead but if we are to believe the Bolivian authorities that an Irish citizen was involved in an assassination plot the least we should expect is a bit more concrete evidence.
The Szekler Legion webshop page seems to have been taken down but you can still see a cached page that Google has stored here:
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:X6kfNm1UySAJ:photo...gl=ie
You can see that Glengad beach insignias for sale towards the bottom of the page.
In other IMC-IE thread: What’s happening in Bolivia?
https://www.indymedia.ie/article/90029&comment_limit=0&...50856
reported:
From Print edition of examiner, doesn't seem to be on net, c/o PetevonPete on P.ie
http://www.politics.ie/foreign-affairs/61194-irish-invo...05961
I cannot understand why, if the Bolivian government and security forces have nothing to hide, they are opposed to any international aspect to an inquiry into the deaths in Santa Cruz.
If the deaths are the result of a shoot-first, ask questions later approach by the police, then the Dwyer family have a right to know what went on and who was responsible.
If Dwyer opened fire or was armed and threatening and the police were simply defending themselves, then this too should be brought to light through a transparent enquiry which, given that there were citizens of other countries killed, should involve close co-operation with interested international representatives.
I wouldn't read too much into the press reaction - it seems fairly typical of how the media in Ireland and the UK generally treat incidents involving natives of these shores and foreign police The UK tv programme 'Banged up abroad' illustrated the naive notion we have that, basically, all UK (and probably extends to Irish too) nationals in foreign prisons were likely the victims of miscarriages of barbarian foreign justice.
I honestly do not see the need to 'contextualise' the killiing of Michael Dwyer in the manner that you have done on this website. While I don't doubt the accuracy of the above contribution, the events in Santa Cruz have already been overly politicised and spun in Bolivia (by both government and opposition) - I don't see the need to politicise them in this country.
I am also very uncomfortble with the focus that you've put on Michael Dwyer's involvement in security at the Shell site in Mayo. What relevance does this have?
Substitute a former Shell security guard with a former Shell-to-Sea protestor.
Substitute Bolivian right-wing splinter group with a Columbian left-wing splinter group.
Substitute the Bolivian government and central police force with the Columbian government and central police force.
If the honest answer to the question 'Would we treat this story in the same way?' is 'No', then I honestly believe that you should not be highlighting the story at all.
The only context that is relevant in this case is the story of who did what in the hotel in Santa Cruz that night.
will any paper ( RAG) in this crazed land have the balls to publish this story so the world will find out what the snake in the grass shell are doing and just who they are involving in their international terrrorist special ops unit. Shell have in the past used intimadation on staff that want to leave the company to pursue a guilt free life and in some cases were told that " they knew too much " , who are the dissidents now >??? Shell to Hell
Oh well it wall come out in the wash. Just like that carpet in the illustration.
Operation Hotel Las Américas, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia 16/4/09
http://photosniper.freedom.hu/aruhaz,
http://www.politics.ie/foreign-affairs/61194-irish-invo....html
It is vital that an impartial investigation should be opened to expose all the links between Mr Dwyer's working for IRMS-Shell in Mayo & his death in Bolivia. This may go some way to reducing the glamour of commercial violence & mercenary soldier work for young men.