Reply #131: A few more facts added to the mix in this updated AP story: [View All]

Former Placerville man held in Bolivia bombings
By Fiona Smith -- Associated Press
Published 10:52 am PST Thursday, March 23, 2006


~snip~
Triston Jay Amero, 24, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the El Dorado Union High School District Board in 2002. Amero, who listed his occupation with the El Dorado County Elections office as a "Clergyman/process server," lost during the June 2002 election, having only garnered 5.56 percent of the vote, according to Bee archives.
(snip)

He was detained Wednesday alongside his girlfriend Alda Ribeiro, 45, of Uruguay. Police paraded the handcuffed pair in front of the press; Lestat, slightly overweight, with a ponytail and glasses, showed no emotion before onlookers.
(snip)
(now his girlfriend is 45 years old)

In January, he applied for Bolivian residency, according to Gallup and Isaac Pemintel, Bolivia’s national police chief.

He told Gallup he was passing the New Year in Potosi, Bolivia, a mining community where sticks of dynamite are sold out of stalls at a market open to all. And in the weeks before the blasts, his Uruguayan partner had been promoting a Bolivian business selling and exporting "explosives, fireworks and liquor."
(snip)

Police said they managed to evacuate the second hotel before the blast hit at about 2 a.m. Wednesday, and that they thwarted the couple’s plans for a third bomb attack on the Chilean consulate here on Saturday. The pair blew up 110 dynamite cartridges in each attack and had planned to kill 150 people, police said.
(snip)

In a 2002 blog connected to a website, Digital Paganism of the World, Amero praised the website and left a message: “I am a Wiccan High Priest from California Who must deal with Bible-mongering Christians every Day. I am greatly pleased with your essay on Paganism in relation to child abuse, as that is an issue that every Bible-monger in the County wants to gripe about.”

Amero ran for a seat on the El Dorado Union High School District baord in September 2002 and for a seat on the county’s Fire Division 3 board. He fared poorly in both races, and included the moniker, “Lord Cactus” as part of his name.

The State Department called his mother, Dawna Scheda, in Placerville, on Wednesday night to inform her about the arrest. Scheda said she has not spoken with her son and does not know where he is being held, and declined to say more before hiring a lawyer.
(snip)

http://www.sacbee.com/content/breakingnews/story/14234047p-15055726c.html

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I'd like to highlight what another DU'er wrote earlier. It's entirely irritating seeing ALL of these articles pointing out the "low budget" aspects of the hotel. MANY hotels in other countries are "LOW BUDGET" because the people themselves are struggling economically. In very poor countries there just AREN'T many expensive hotels for the wealthier visitors to stay in. Wouldn't be prudent to have a lot of hotels no one could afford, beyond the very light international traffic.

Sounds like an attempt to color public perception, implying it's not as threatening since he didn't blow up any hotel where anyone of prominence would be staying.