Former Bolivian President Evo Morales, investigated in a case concerning the death, in 2009, of three Europeans, including a Romanian

Bolivia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a new investigation on Monday into former President Evo Morales and former Vice President Álvaro García Linera over alleged crimes and acts of torture committed during a police operation carried out in 2009 in Santa Cruz. The case concerns the deaths of three Europeans, including Romanian citizen of Hungarian ethnicity Arpad Magyarosi.

In April 2009, a police commando stormed the Las Americas hotel and fatally shot Bolivian-Croatian Eduardo Rozsa-Flores, Irishman Michael Dwyer and Arpad Magyarosi. Two other men survived and said they had been tortured after their arrest. The government led by Morales at the time claimed that the group was preparing a separatist movement financed by economic elites in Santa Cruz, but the official version that the victims died in a shootout was challenged.

The investigation was requested through a complaint filed by right-wing lawmakers Tomasa Yarhui and Rodrigo Antonio. Acting Attorney General Jose Armando Urioste referred the case to the Supreme Court of Justice. The victims’ families petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which determined in 2021 that the Bolivian state had violated human rights.

Evo Morales, who denies the allegations, has not commented so far. The former president is already facing two arrest warrants, over protests that paralyzed the country and alleged trafficking of a minor.