One Man Killed in Bolivian Shootout Was Romanian

Three suspected mercenaries were killed in the Bolivian opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz last Thursday.

One of three alleged plotters killed in a shootout in Bolivia last week was a Romanian citizen, Romania said on Tuesday.

Three suspected mercenaries were killed in the Bolivian opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz last Thursday after police tried to arrest a gang suspected of travelling from abroad to kill public figures including President Evo Morales.

The Romanian Foreign Ministry said it had received official confirmation that one of those shot was a Romanian citizen, but had received no clarification from Bolivia on the circumstances of his death. It declined to name him.

Bolivia said it believed the suspected plotters had tried to blow up a navy boat on which Morales met cabinet ministers two weeks ago, and aimed to trigger a "spiral of violence".

Confusion lingers over the nationalities of the dead men. The Bolivian state news agency ABI reported that one of them was a Bolivian-Hungarian, Eduardo Rozsa Flores, who had fought in separatist movements in the former Yugoslavia.

ABI said the other two men who died in the gunfight hailed from Ireland and Romania, although Bolivian authorities initially said two of them were Hungarian.

Police arrested two others in the Santa Cruz raid, whom local media identified as a Bolivian and a Hungarian. Authorities said police had confiscated sniper rifles, high-calibre guns and other explosives from a nearby building.