World

Attorney General Opens Probe into Former President Morales Over 2009 Hotel Raid

By Guardian staff reporter

Bolivia’s attorney general has announced a preliminary investigation into former left‑wing president Evo Morales, alleging his involvement in the 2009 murder and torture of European citizens. In that year, police raided a hotel in Santa Cruz, killing Eduardo Rózsa Flores, a Bolivian‑Croatian, Michael Dwyer, an Irishman, and Árpád Magyarosi, a Hungarian‑Romanian. Two other detainees, Mario Tadic, a Bolivian‑Croatian, and Elöd Tóásó from Hungary, survived and reported being tortured after their arrest. The Morales administration, then in power, claimed that Rózsa Flores was leading a separatist movement funded by the right‑wing economic elite of Santa Cruz. Acting attorney general José Armando Urioste said the investigation began one week into his tenure and that authorities were gathering evidence against Morales and former vice‑president Álvaro García Linera for alleged murder, abuse, torture and unlawful detention. The probe follows a complaint by right‑wing lawmakers Tomasa Yarhui and Rodrigo Antonio. During the raid, Morales told the press in Venezuela that he had ordered the detention of the foreigners, whom he called “mercenaries.” Family members and victims had taken the case to the Inter‑American Commission on Human Rights, which in 2021 concluded that the government had violated human rights. Neither Morales nor García Linera has commented on the inquiry. Morales, the first Indigenous president of Bolivia, is currently in hiding from two active arrest warrants: one for his alleged role in massive protests that paralysed the country for 53 days earlier this year, and another accusing him of trafficking a minor with whom he is said to have had a daughter. Morales denies the allegations.