Hungary’s Foreign Ministry has voiced incomprehension over remarks by Bolivian Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera, reported by the Bolivian press on Wednesday, suggesting that Hungary should apologise for Hungarians participating in an alleged terrorist plot against Bolivian President Evo Morales.
The Hungarian ministry’s press chief Gabor Kaleta said that the vice-president’s remarks were “unfortunate”, and noted that Hungary had repeatedly approached the Bolivian foreign minister in connection with the case of Elod Toaso, who is charged with participating in terrorist activities and is imprisoned in Bolivia; but no answer had been received.
Kaleta also reiterated Hungary’s earlier position that Bolivia should observe its own laws, referring to Toaso’s having been kept in prison for over three years without sentence.
On April 16, 2009, Bolivia’s special forces cracked down on what was believed to be a terrorist unit in Santa Cruz. Bolivian-Hungarian Eduardo Rozsa-Flores, ethnic Hungarian from Romania Arpad Magyarosi and the Irish Michael Dwyer died in the attack. Toaso was arrested and has been kept in detention under suspicion of an armed uprising and terrorism.
According to Gerardo Prado, Toaso’s attorney, the case should have been dropped under the Bolivian penal code, which stipulates that in such cases legal proceedings must be concluded within three years.
