News

April 21, 2009
by Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis

Correction: This article states that Mario Francisco Tasik Astorga and Elod Toaso fought in the Croation war. According to news reports, the two members of the cell that fought in that war were Astorga and the named ringleader, Eduardo Rosa Flores, not Elod Toaso.

Last month, the Bolivian government expelled [1] a senior “diplomat” from the US embassy in La Paz, whom it accused of covertly supporting efforts [2] to depose the country’s leftist president, Evo Morales. This past week, Bolivian authorities announced they had foiled operations by a major international anti-government mercenary group operating out of the city of Santa Cruz, a hotbed of anti-government activity in the country’s wealthy eastern provinces. Three of the unit’s members, a Bolivian of Croatian descent, an Irishman and a Romanian, were killed by Bolivian security forces; two others, a Hungarian and another Bolivian of Croatian descent, were captured and are now in custody.