Reply #12: He's mentioned again in this article from yesterday: [View All]

Bolivia Terror Investigation Continues

La Paz, May 19 (PL) - Prosecutor Marcelo Sosa, who is leading an investigation into the Santa Cruz, Bolivia, terrorist plot, has called four witnesses to testify next Thursday in this capital.

According to a source of the Ministry of the Attorney General, those called include Ronald Alberto Suarez, legal representative of the gambling company Corhat Bolivia, which paid the Las Americas hotel costs for the extremist group that was neutralized last April.

The director of the Special Forces to Combat Crime in Santa Cruz, colonel Miguel Gonzalez revealed this new name of a person who should testify together with businessperson, Kathy Tabzuck and lawyer Alejandro Melgar Pereyra.

Also called to testify is Eduardo Guitarte, legal representative of the Aires Insurance company based in Santa Cruz.

The armed group was led by Bolivian-Croatian Eduardo Rozsa Flores, who died during the operation together with two other cohorts intending to destabilize the Andean nation, according to other witnesses.

Their plans also included the assassination of the Head of State Evo Morales and the members of his cabinet during a meeting in Lake Titicaca last April 3rd.

According to the prosecutor who heads this case, these violent acts are also related to Santa Cruz prefect, Ruben Costas and former president of the civic committee, affluent business person Branko Marinokovic.

The Bolivian members of the gang could be tried for treason, he pointed out.

http://www.escambray.cu/Eng/news/Wboliviaterror090519322.htm

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Here's one of the early articles mentioning him:

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Opposition linked to alleged Morales death plot

TOM HENNIGAN in São PauloLEADING FIGURES in Bolivia’s opposition were involved with the group which included Irishman Michael Dwyer and allegedly planned to kill the country’s left-wing president Evo Morales, according to the prosecutor investigating the case.

Mr Dwyer and two other men were shot dead by police in a hotel in the eastern city of Santa Cruz on April 16th. Two others were arrested at the scene.

Bolivia’s authorities say they were supposedly plotting with regional separatists to set up armed groups to confront the central government as part of eastern Bolivia’s increasingly bitter struggle for greater autonomy.

On Monday night prosecutor Marcelo Sosa told a press conference that leading political and business leaders from the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz provided aid to the group.

Among those named by Mr Sosa were Ruben Costas, the leader of Santa Cruz’s regional government, and Branko Marinkovic, a prominent businessman and former leader of Santa Cruz’s main autonomy movement. Others include a retired general and a former government minister.

Mr Sosa has summoned the men to testify about their alleged involvement.

Mr Marinkovic is a hate figure for Evo Morales and fellow leftists in Bolivia, accused of masterminding attempts by the eastern part of the country to split away from the poorer west. He has denied the accusations.

The prosecutor said his evidence is in part based on testimony from four witnesses: Mario Tádic, the Bolivian of Croatian descent and one of the two men arrested in the hotel where Dwyer was killed; Juan Carlos Gueder Bruno and Alcides Mendoza, both arrested last week in Santa Cruz and accused of supplying the group with a weapon; and Ignacio Villa Vargas, described by the prosecutor as his key witness.

Said to have acted as a local fixer for the group, Villa Vargas is a 51-year-old career criminal with a police record dating back to 1981 involving fraud, dealing in stolen cars and falsifying US visas. He is reportedly gravely ill with diabetes.

He says he was present at meetings involving the group’s leader, Eduardo Rozsa Flores, Mr Marinkovic and the other prominent figures implicated. At one meeting he claims Mr Marinkovic rang Mr Costas, the regional government’s head. Mr Costas supposedly offered the group a house and land where they could stay and train.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0506/1224245993807.html

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His name was brought up earlier in this article from Jim Shultz who lives in Bolivia, runs his own blog:

Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Is the United States Funding Violent Opposition Groups in Bolivia?

~snip~
Written by Dan Beeton, Center for Economic and Policy Research

There's a fair amount of evidence that the U.S. has already funded violent actors among the Bolivian opposition, even from the relatively little that we know about recent grants through USAID and so on:We know that since President Morales’ election, the U.S. government has sent millions of dollars in aid to departmental prefects and municipal governments in Bolivia. See e.g.:

USAID DATA Sheet: Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance

USAID/OTI Bolivia Field Report

"OTI has approved 101 grants for $4,066,131 to help departmental governments operate more strategically." We know that Leopoldo Fernandez, as a prefect, received some of this money. As you know, he is not someone who has merely written "anti-Evo op.eds," he was found by the UNASUR commission that investigated the September violence in Porvenir to have led a "chain of command” of perpetrators who acted "in an organized fashion” to commit a "massacre."

From the "USAID/OTI Bolivia Field Report July - September 2006": "OTI activities are aimed at building the capacity of prefect-led departmental governments to help them better respond to the constituencies they govern.…During the third quarter, OTI has continued to build on its activities designed to enhance the capacity of departmental governments. OTI isimplementing projects in coordination with all nine departmental governments, most recently collaborating with the prefectures of Beni,Pando, and Oruro. The projects provide technical support and training for prefecture staff in the areas of strategic planning, budgeting andproject management. They also build institutional capacity related to financial and administrative systems, transparency mechanisms,communications and outreach. In addition, OTI approved new projects designed to help prefectures more efficiently and strategicallyapproach their responsibilities in regional economic development, departmental infrastructure and social services.”

We also know that USAID has similarly funded and worked with Ruben Costas in his capacity as prefect of Santa Cruz. To take one example, again from the "USAID/OTI Bolivia Field Report July - September 2006":

“During the third quarter, OTI approved a total of 24 projects for $913,000. Thirteen of the new projects, totaling $465,800, are being implemented in support of the decentralization process through strengthened departmental governments. One newly-approved set of activities in the departments of Pando, Tarija, Potosí and Santa Cruz will facilitate the transparent, efficient flow of information between the various offices and divisions within prefectures. Its goal is to improve communication between departmental governments and stakeholders
at the local government and community levels.”

Ruben Costas has most recently been in the news again after witnesses told prosecutor Marcelo Sosa that Costas had offered “a house and land” to Eduardo Rozsa Flores and the other plotters in the terrorist cell broken up by Bolivian authorities on April 16, 2009. Whether this accusation turns out to be true or not, I would argue that Costas has clearly supported violence against both the Bolivian government and indigenous people in Bolivia in other ways.

Costas made numerous statements supporting the violence as it unfolded in September 2008. On September 9, 2008, the Andean Information Network reported that “In response to the day’s violence, Santa Cruz Prefect Ruben Costas claimed that these outbursts reflected the 86% of people in his prefect who voted for departmental autonomy.” Costas did not mince his words, according to AIN: “This is not a coup d’état, nor a civic-prefectural coup,” but rather a response “to the violence and repression of a fascist Government.”<. . .>“What happened today in Santa Cruz is the consequence of State terrorism that the government exercises, of the blindness that impedes them from recognizing the peoples’ right, the free determination and sovereignty of the departmental autonomy.”

Costas has also stirred up racial hatred by calling Morales “a monkey,” which is not trivial considering the ongoing racial violence against indigenous Bolivians by the UJC, Camba Nation, and various other groups.

Was Phillip Goldberg really surprised to be expelled after being caught having a clandestine meeting with this man?

http://democracyctr.org/blog/2009/05/is-united-states-funding-violent.html

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Glad you mentioned this, and I saw his name in the last snip, because now I remember HIS NAME is the name which comes up again and again as the guy who offered to supply them (the hit squad) a house and money a long time ago. There are so many parts to this it's hard to keep a score card sometimes.

Costas seems to be right at the center of so much violence toward indigenous people.

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/00OP7V7fhc13S/610x.jpg

Getty Images 17 months ago
(From L to R) President of the Civic Committee Branco Marincovik, president of the Autonomous Assembly Pablo Klinski, president of the Feminine Civic Committee Ruth Lozada and Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas pose for photographers, 15 December 2007, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Costas gave Marincovik the statute of declaration of autonomy of the region to be put under public consideration in an open meeting.

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/03W69Vx46zais/610x.jpg

Getty Images 17 months ago
(From L to R) President of the Civic Committee Branco Marincovik, Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas and president of the Autonomous Assembly Pablo Klinski during the declaration of autonomy of the region, 15 December 2007, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Costas gave Marincovik the statute which will be put under public consideration in an open meeting.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_UNk_6XhKms4/SBt9PJkK5WI/AAAAAAAACt0/AHhSOrqd4Kw/s400/RUBEN+COSTAS.jpg http://www.eldeber.com.bo.nyud.net:8090/especiales/prefecto2007/images/tapa.jpg