Irish and EU emissaries repeat calls for Dwyer killing inquiry
The family of the security worker from Co Tipperary said it was pleased the Government and the EU had taken the step.
Mr Dwyer, 24, was shot dead by police in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz who claimed he and others were involved in an alleged right-wing plot to assassinate the country’s president Evo Morales.
In a statement yesterday, a spokeswoman for the family said they had received a briefing from the Department of Foreign Affairs about the meeting.
“The family said that it was pleased that in an official demarche [diplomatic representation] to the Bolivian authorities, both the Irish Government and EU expressed mounting concerns over failure for any investigation to take place into Michael’s killing.
“It was confirmed to the family by the Department that the demarche comprised His Excellency James McIntyre and EU Ambassador to Bolivia Timothy Torlot. The delegation reiterated the need for an independent inquiry into Michael’s killing as a critical outcome.”
The spokeswoman said the family was pleased the EU was involved: “This should send a strong message to the Bolivian authorities that the issue of Michael’s death is taken very seriously.”
Confirming the meetings took place, a spokeswoman for the department said: “Earlier this year, the Tánaiste met the Bolivian deputy foreign minister on the margins of an EU-Latin America Summit in Chile and stated his view that the circumstances surrounding the death of this young Irish citizen have still not been explained adequately to his family. It remains the Tánaiste’s view that an international independent investigation would be helpful and he reiterated the Irish Government’s call for such an investigation.”
The spokeswoman for the family said they used the meeting with the department to raise concerns over the recent testimony of Hungarian El Elod Toaso, currently on trial in Bolivia on terrorism charges. Mr Toaso, who was with Mr Dwyer in the run-up to his death, told the court the Irishman had survived the bloody hotel raid by police and that he was later seen at the city’s airport, where he claims he was killed.
“That Mr Toaso testified he saw Michael alive some time after the initial raid on the Las Americas Hotel is an issue of deep distress,” the spokeswoman said.
“The family is now considering making a supplementary submission to both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on Ex-judicial Killings based on their new concerns, and the fact that since Michael’s killing over four years ago, there has been no investigation into the circumstances at a domestic or international level.”
She said the family was told by the Irish Ambassador he intended to revisit Bolivia on this issue in the winter.
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