Bolivian
ex-president charged for handing missiles to US
AFP
LA
PAZ
Petroleumworld.com
03 10 06
Bolivia's attorney general on Thursday announced charges against
former interim president Eduardo Rodriguez for handing over as
many as 31 surface-to-air missiles to the United States.
Attorney General Pedro Gareca has charged Rodriguez, president
from June 2005 to January, with "handing over to a foreign
power" between 19 to 31 Chinese-built surface-to-air missiles.
Also charged were former defense minister Gonzalo Mendez and the
former head of Bolivia's armed forces, Admiral Marco Antonio Justiniano.
The accusation could result in treason charges and send the three
men to prison for up to 30 years, Gareca said.
President Evo Morales, who took office on January 22, has long
expressed anger over the October missile handover and promised
"drastic punishment" for those involved.
Just five days before Morales, a firebrand leftist activist, assumed
power, Rodriguez fired the head of the army, General Marcelo Antezana,
for his role in the missile affair.
Antezana had earlier issued contradictory statements, first saying
that the missiles were obsolete, then that US officials wanted
them destroyed to weaken the Morales administration.
Rodriguez said earlier that he authorized the destruction of the
missiles after receiving a military report that they had not been
properly maintained.
In December, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
that US officials helped Bolivia dispose of a small number of
portable surface-to-air missiles "that were in deteriorating
condition," but denied reports the La Paz government had
not been consulted.
"This was done at the request of the Bolivian government,"
he said, adding that it was consistent with an Organization of
American States resolution on the matter.
AFP
03 09 06
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