A California eccentric who named himself after a literary vampire was sentenced to 30 years in jail without parole for bombing two La Paz hotels in 2006, attacks that killed two and put a bizarre kink in already delicate Bolivia-US relations.
Triston Jay Amero, 26, who answers to Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo, a variation on a character in Anne Rice's vampire novels, was convicted on Tuesday of bombing two low-rent hotels in the La Paz, an attorney close to the case confirmed on Wednesday.
The court based its verdict largely on testimony from the Placerville native's estranged common law wife, 47-year-old Alda Ribeiro Costa, of Uruguay. Riberio was also sentenced to 30 years for her role in the crime.
PHOTO: AP
Amero, who has called for the murder of supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales, maintains his innocence and says the pair were eating pizza across town when the bombs went off.
But he's not shy about a knack for blowing things up, a skill he says he discovered lighting fireworks with his grandmother.
"There's no school where you can go to learn how to be an explosives expert," Amero told reporters during the trial. "You either have a talent for it or you don't."
Morales, meanwhile, has repeatedly insinuated that Amero is part of a larger US plot to destabilize his leftist government.
"The US government fights terrorism, and they send us terrorists," Morales said after Amero's arrest.
He later backed off any specific accusations, but still cites the hotel bombings in his frequent criticisms of US involvement in Bolivia.
US officials deny any ties to Amero, and say such comments have hurt relations with Bolivia.
An attorney monitoring the case on behalf of Amero's family said Morales tainted the trial.
"You have the president of the country saying this guy is guilty. That's not fair," said Paul Wolf, a Washington-based lawyer.
Amero's mother, Dawna Scheda, declined on Wednesday to comment on the verdict.
US court documents show Amero has received psychiatric treatment since age seven, spent years at a juvenile detention center and often made threats of suicide and violence against authorities.
A similar pattern continued in Bolivia, said a former prison official who supervised Amero's pretrial solitary confinement at Chonchocoro prison. Amero will return to serve his sentence at the grim maximum-security facility on the wind-swept outskirts of La Paz.
In travels through South America, Amero described himself as a Saudi Arabian lawyer, a pagan high priest, a public notary and even a vampire. At one point, he was jailed for bombing an automatic cash machine in northern Argentina.
He moved to Bolivia in 2004 and settled in the mining town of Potosi, where dynamite is freely sold.
He obtained the license required to sell the explosives and opened a shop -- even printing a promotional poster of his wife posing nude with a box of dynamite.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
RSS