[R-G] Hungarians Die in Plot to Kill Bolivian President

[Anthony Fenton]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE53F54I20090416?sp=true

Plot to kill Bolivia's president foiled
Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:11pm BST

By Eduardo Garcia

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian security forces thwarted an assassination  
plot against President Evo Morales on Thursday, killing three people  
in a half-hour shootout at a hotel, government and police officials  
said.

Police chief Hugo Escobar said two Hungarians and a Bolivian, who were  
believed to be part of a conspiracy to kill Morales, were killed in  
the gunfight in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, an opposition  
stronghold.

Morales, a socialist, is Bolivia's first indigenous president and has  
faced strong opposition in relatively wealthy regions of the country,  
including Santa Cruz. Morales was not in Santa Cruz at the time of the  
incident shortly after midnight local time.

Speaking later on Thursday during a visit to Venezuela, Morales said  
an Irish person may have been among what he called foreign mercenaries  
involved in the suspected plot. Government officials said authorities  
had recently been following the suspects.

"Yesterday I gave instructions to the vice president to move to arrest  
these mercenaries and this morning I was informed of a half-hour  
shootout at a hotel in the city of Santa Cruz," Morales said, adding  
two people were under arrest.

There was confusion regarding the nationalities of the foreigners  
killed. While the chief of police said two of those killed were from  
Hungary, several local media organizations reported they were from  
Romania and Ireland.

In La Paz, Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia told reporters the  
men were carrying guns and grenades and attacked police as they  
approached them.

He said that after the shootout, police found documents "about  
preparations for an assassination, an attempt on the lives of the  
president and the vice president."

Heavily armed police cordoned off the hotel where the shootout occurred.

Morales has announced several plots against him in the past but the  
results of investigations have never been released, causing some  
Bolivians to doubt their veracity.

Last year, right-wing opposition groups launched violent protests  
against a referendum promoted by Morales that gives more power to the  
indigenous majority.

Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia in September, accusing  
him of encouraging the protests in a bid to oust him.

The president ended a five-day hunger strike on Tuesday after  
lawmakers passed an electoral law that creates more seats in  
indigenous areas where his support is strongest. Morales had stopped  
eating to pressure legislators to pass the law.

Critics say the law tilts the electoral odds in his favour before a  
December presidential election the former coca farmer is expected to  
win.

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel in Caracas, Editing by  
Kieran Murray and Peter Cooney)