Who was Felipe Froilán Molina, ‘El Killer’, confessed murderer of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz

Felipe Froilán Molina Bustamante, better known as ‘El Killer’, was a confidant of former President Hugo Banzer Suárez and accused of being part of the assault on the COB headquarters in 1980, an operation in which the socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz was assassinated during the coup of Luis García Meza.

Also, “El Killer” was a non-commissioned officer of the Armed Forces and personal security of Yolanda Pradawidow of the former President of the Republic and dictator Banzer.

In 2007, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. without the right to pardon for the murder and disappearance of the prominent socialist politician and was only captured in 2016 to begin serving his sentence.

However, in 2020, he irregularly benefited from house arrest for a period of one year, granted by former judge Abraham Aguirre Romero. However, he was recaptured on February 18 after being found in a home, located in the Cota Cota area, La Paz, to be transferred to the Chonchocoro prison.

A public complaint made by the Quiroga Santa Cruz family stating that ‘El Killer’ was free was what mobilized prosecutors and police, who in 24 hours they apprehended former judge Abraham Aguirre, who was accused of having released two prisoners sentenced to 30 years without the right to pardon.

assassination of a leader

Probably the man most hated by the Bolivian military who came to power, the socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga He was tortured and murdered on July 17, 1980, the day of the coup led by Luis García Meza.in the premises of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), in La Paz.

Quiroga, who had come in fourth place in the June presidential election and was the rising political star of the Bolivian leftattended with other political and union leaders, including Juan Lechín, an emergency meeting of the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (Conade).

The newspaper ‘El País’ of Spain obtained a narration from an eyewitness to the assault on the COB and the machine-gunning of Marcelo Quiroga by paramilitary forces at the service of the coup plotters. The witness claims to have seen the person who shot Quiroa.

“All of them had short hair and were wearing white shirts. The one who shot Marcelo and then passed the gun on to someone else was a short guy with curly hair, wide front, with entrances. He was just a little boy, “he told the Spanish newspaper.

The secret of the dictatorship

Since that July 17, 1980, the day of the torture and murder of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the whereabouts of his body and that of union leader Carlos Flores Bedregal are unknown.

García Meza remained in the de facto government until August 4, 1981. During this period, there were 26 enforced disappearances. On January 15, 1981, nine leaders of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left were assassinated when they were meeting in the harrington street from the Sopocachi area of ​​the city of La Paz, according to data from the Truth Commission, which delivered 11 bound volumes of investigations into crimes against humanity that occurred in Bolivia between November 4, 1964 and October 10, 1982, says a report in the newspaper Ahora El Pueblo.

The Harrington Street massacre was directed by the then Minister of the Interior, Luis Arce Gómez, who died on March 30, 2020. He was one of those convicted of the coordinated operations of the South American dictatorships, in the Condor Plan, during the 1970s and 1980s, like García Meza, who died on April 29, 2018.

Arce Gómez, in an interview, confirmed that Quiroga’s body was deposited in a brass box and transferred by plane to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, by direct order of Banzer, who assured him that he had buried his remains in his hacienda in San Javier. He would have told her: “this… who wanted to sue me, I have him buried right here, he’s under my feet”.

In 2010, he proposed to the Government to reveal the location where the remains of the socialist leader were buried, in exchange for the house-for-prison benefit. But given the impossibility of modifying his sentence, the best kept secret of the dictatorship could never be revealed.

‘Killer’ throws new data

On February 19, after leaving the cells of the Felcc to be taken to judicial cells, Felipe Froilán Molina said who knows which people have in their possession the remains of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz.

“I don’t know, but I know who is holding”, said the prisoner briefly when the journalists asked him about where the remains of the political leader would be buried. He mentioned that he was silent for a long time and now he is willing to reveal what he knows.

In this way, 42 years after the disappearance of the socialist leader, a possibility of finally knowing where the remains are opens up. Although “El Killer” said that the remains are not buried, but are in the power of three people whom he did not identify. “They are not buried”summed up the condemned prisoner.

Felipe Froilán Molina Bustamante, better known as ‘El Killer’, was a confidant of former President Hugo Banzer Suárez and accused of being part of the assault on the COB headquarters in 1980, an operation in which the socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz was assassinated during the coup of Luis García Meza.

Also, “El Killer” was a non-commissioned officer of the Armed Forces and personal security of Yolanda Pradawidow of the former President of the Republic and dictator Banzer.

In 2007, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. without the right to pardon for the murder and disappearance of the prominent socialist politician and was only captured in 2016 to begin serving his sentence.

However, in 2020, he irregularly benefited from house arrest for a period of one year, granted by former judge Abraham Aguirre Romero. However, he was recaptured on February 18 after being found in a home, located in the Cota Cota area, La Paz, to be transferred to the Chonchocoro prison.

A public complaint made by the Quiroga Santa Cruz family stating that ‘El Killer’ was free was what mobilized prosecutors and police, who in 24 hours they apprehended former judge Abraham Aguirre, who was accused of having released two prisoners sentenced to 30 years without the right to pardon.

assassination of a leader

Probably the man most hated by the Bolivian military who came to power, the socialist leader Marcelo Quiroga He was tortured and murdered on July 17, 1980, the day of the coup led by Luis García Meza.in the premises of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), in La Paz.

Quiroga, who had come in fourth place in the June presidential election and was the rising political star of the Bolivian leftattended with other political and union leaders, including Juan Lechín, an emergency meeting of the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (Conade).

The newspaper ‘El País’ of Spain obtained a narration from an eyewitness to the assault on the COB and the machine-gunning of Marcelo Quiroga by paramilitary forces at the service of the coup plotters. The witness claims to have seen the person who shot Quiroa.

“All of them had short hair and were wearing white shirts. The one who shot Marcelo and then passed the gun on to someone else was a short guy with curly hair, wide front, with entrances. He was just a little boy, “he told the Spanish newspaper.

The secret of the dictatorship

Since that July 17, 1980, the day of the torture and murder of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the whereabouts of his body and that of union leader Carlos Flores Bedregal are unknown.

García Meza remained in the de facto government until August 4, 1981. During this period, there were 26 enforced disappearances. On January 15, 1981, nine leaders of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left were assassinated when they were meeting in the harrington street from the Sopocachi area of ​​the city of La Paz, according to data from the Truth Commission, which delivered 11 bound volumes of investigations into crimes against humanity that occurred in Bolivia between November 4, 1964 and October 10, 1982, says a report in the newspaper Ahora El Pueblo.

The Harrington Street massacre was directed by the then Minister of the Interior, Luis Arce Gómez, who died on March 30, 2020. He was one of those convicted of the coordinated operations of the South American dictatorships, in the Condor Plan, during the 1970s and 1980s, like García Meza, who died on April 29, 2018.

Arce Gómez, in an interview, confirmed that Quiroga’s body was deposited in a brass box and transferred by plane to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, by direct order of Banzer, who assured him that he had buried his remains in his hacienda in San Javier. He would have told her: “this… who wanted to sue me, I have him buried right here, he’s under my feet”.

In 2010, he proposed to the Government to reveal the location where the remains of the socialist leader were buried, in exchange for the house-for-prison benefit. But given the impossibility of modifying his sentence, the best kept secret of the dictatorship could never be revealed.

‘Killer’ throws new data

On February 19, after leaving the cells of the Felcc to be taken to judicial cells, Felipe Froilán Molina said who knows which people have in their possession the remains of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz.

“I don’t know, but I know who is holding”, said the prisoner briefly when the journalists asked him about where the remains of the political leader would be buried. He mentioned that he was silent for a long time and now he is willing to reveal what he knows.

In this way, 42 years after the disappearance of the socialist leader, a possibility of finally knowing where the remains are opens up. Although “El Killer” said that the remains are not buried, but are in the power of three people whom he did not identify. “They are not buried”summed up the condemned prisoner.

;