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Wikileaks claims Irishman gunned down in Bolivia was set up

U.S. cable links Bolivian govt to death plot, secret plan

By
PATRICK COOPER,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, January 2, 2011, 7:22 AM
Updated Sunday, January 2, 2011, 7:50 AM

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Michael Dwyer


An Irishman shot to death by the Bolivian Army in April 2009 was lured to his death, a new Wikileaks document claims.

Michael Dwyer, a 24-year-old man from Tipperary, was one of the three men shot in Santa Cruz last April 16th over an alleged plot to assassinate president Evo Morales.

Wikileaks quotes a U.S. Embassy cable which states the government set Dwyer and his fellow paramilitary gang members up in order to attack opponents of the Evo Morales government.

Bolivian investigators later claimed to have found email correspondence linking one of the men shot to Istvan Belovai, a former Hungarian military intelligence officer who defected to the U.S. in 1990 and later became a CIA agent.

But United States diplomats say this was a hoax and Dwyer was lured to his death as part of a plot by Bolivia’s own intelligence services aimed at Morales opponents.

The diplomatic cable from La Paz released by Wikileaks says Dwyer was hired by disguised Bolivian intelligence agents and set up to mount a phony terrorist campaign.

The cable says this campaign would have given President Evo Morales an excuse to go after right wing critics of his.

The cable quotes a local source saying Dwyer and the two others were shot in order to “erase tracks.’

The source interviewed by US officials stated that Rózsa Flores, the leader of Dwyer’s ‘terrorists’ group, was contracted by Col Jorge Santiesteban, head of police intelligence, and his deputy, Capt Wálter Andrade.

The cable appears to be backed up by evidence from La Razon newspaper in Bolivia, which received photographs dated from  January 2007 and appeared to show Capt Andrade socialising with Rózsa Flores.

Sacha Llorenti, Bolivia’s interior minister has called the leaked cable  “gossip." Bolivia’s public prosecutor last month charged 39 people in the alleged plot including many opposition leaders who have fled the country.

The Dwyer family continue to press the Irish governemnt for help in finding out exactly what happened to their son.

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18 Comments

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jacersagain | Jan 03, 2011, 04:57 PM EST
@ jamthecat 02, 04.42 – I and my two childhood friends worked out that “which half” problem a long time ago. One, or maybe two of us, or, on a good day, us all three, would earn/gain enough to buy a bar of chocolate. We always shared halfs between us three –“loyalties are precious between us,” we’d say, “and so is munchy chocolate” we’d declare, with flags flying outside our “Den”. When it came down to only one having enough to buy the bar of chocolate, it was agreed that the “one” who earned enough to buy the bar of chocolate on the day had the call. We agreed that the one who bought the chocolate got the biggest “half”. Problem solved, equally. Day after day. As we Irish Gaulixii, enamoured by Asterix knew, there was no need for murderouxix, politix, or politixions or wikileexios. A problem or delight shared doesn’t know a half. (Sorry for Michael & his family’s grief – a grief shared knows no grief or the half of it).

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ClarDubh | Jan 03, 2011, 04:23 PM EST
Given that the US government spend enormous resources on getting democratically-elected South American leaders overthrown, I would not believe a single thing coming from their forked tongues.

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mamaginnty | Jan 03, 2011, 11:49 AM EST
OH DEARY, FORGOT TA SAY I TINK DIS WILKILEEKS IS DA BEST TING SINCE SLICED BREAD, AN PEEPLE.....DINNA SAY 1 WORD ABOU ME SPEELIN, YA NO WHAT A MEAN.

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mamaginnty | Jan 03, 2011, 11:44 AM EST
JAMTHECAT....CAN JIST IMAGINE YER FACE, DUH..."THE CAT THAT GOT THE CREAM" ALMOST FELL AFF ME OULD TREE LEGGED MILKING SEAT LAFFIN. CHEERED ME UP NO END.

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cillowen | Jan 03, 2011, 10:53 AM EST
more than likely - a hero for the oppressor

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seamusmoore | Jan 02, 2011, 08:02 PM EST
hey woundedbollix how is your passport application moving along? Your position as "Away from Home" Minister on Immigration awaits you. Maybe you can bribe someone in the Dail to move it along like Khalid bin Mahfouz (Osama's half brother) did in 1990.

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seamusmoore | Jan 02, 2011, 07:47 PM EST
@sirpeter Our friend is a big man on the computer with his nonsense. Wonder if he wants to make a one way trip from his old school (home of the fightin' Jews) on the upper west side across the 59th street bridge. Don't think he will be feelin' groovy like the Simon & Garfunkel song.

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mhichil | Jan 02, 2011, 07:23 PM EST
you really don't want to know what I think about this

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dan Breen | Jan 02, 2011, 05:28 PM EST
South America is the American puppet nightmare. Blame the American government they supply these rightwing nuts with weapons !

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jamthecat | Jan 02, 2011, 04:42 PM EST
Love the psychotic rants this little story has instigated. They'd be more entertaining if I could figure out what half these people are talking about.

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PhlutiePhan | Jan 02, 2011, 03:26 PM EST
If you have seen the movie "A Clear and Present Danger", then you are suspicious about this story. Evo Morales is a known Communist. He is causing problems in Chile. He is linked to Hugo Chavez who is linked to Iran which is linked to Communist China. In the movie, the U.S. began selling out undercover agents and assasinatiion teams who were sent to "get rid of Communists". Our government is "left wing" and maybe working secretly with the Communists in South America. You have to keep "your ears to the ground". It appears that the U.S. bishops are working secretly in the same vein to the detriment of the South American bishops' conferences who are seen as too capitalistic.

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sirpeter | Jan 02, 2011, 03:20 PM EST
Woundedbolix..you made a great post on the birdy that flew to Ireland from Europe..You have stopped taking your meds again haven't you..You're safe enough,I told the hitmen to stand down,but they were aching to pop a cap in your good knee.So be a good boy and you'll be grand.

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WoundedKnee | Jan 02, 2011, 02:35 PM EST
seamusmoore: Columbia is my alma mater, Colombia is a country in South America. Spelling is not your strong suit. Then what is? Threats of murder, is that all you can offer? If you threatened me to my face like you did while hiding behind a computer screen I'd smash your face with a kick. It would be the last time you threatened anyone, you cowardly rat.

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EFerrari | Jan 02, 2011, 02:07 PM EST
Where does Wikileaks claim anything? Unless you have such an analysis authored by Wikileaks, Mr. Cooper needs to make a correction here to "US government claims set up".

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seamusmoore | Jan 02, 2011, 12:40 PM EST
It appears to be a case of Che Lynch Guevara redux, if you will. As the grandson of a North Kerry farmer who "aided and abetted" the War of Independence effort which removed the English from 80% of Ireland after 750 plus years of occupation in one form or another, it is sad to see that modern day version of Oglaigh Eireann ventured so far from its original appointed task, sticking its nose into others' battles across the globe which had nothing to do with their founding purpose. It is almost as if the Provos became a paramilitary representation of the nosy neighbor on the 60's TV show "Bewitched", Mrs Kravitz. Let's face the fact that the Provos had to involuntarily decommission for the first time ever ('62 was a voluntary decommissioning) because the South American exhibition of the "Three Amigos" (Columbia 3) was unacceptable to most of their US supporters in a post 9/11 world. Little wonder that Marian Price, the putative reconfiguratiionist of Old Bailey in 1974, asked this question: What did I (we) do this all for?

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