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58-569: The leader of the party, Juan del Granado , was the mayor of La Paz from 2000 to 2010. The party won mayoral elections in 2010 in both La Paz and Oruro. MSM entered into a political alliance with the Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP) on September 3, 2005 in advance of the 2005 presidential election . The parties also consolidated their efforts during the 2006 election for the Constituent Assembly , in support of President Evo Morales during

116-997: A group of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu . He then rejoined the SiPo -SD of Lyon in its retreat to Bruyères , where he led an anti-partisan attack in Rehaupal in September 1944. In 1947, Barbie was recruited as an agent for the 66th Detachment of the US Army Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) along with a Serbian agent of the Belgrade special police and SD, Radislav Grujičić. The US used Barbie and other Nazi Party members to further anti-communist efforts in Europe. Specifically, they were interested in British interrogation techniques which Barbie had experienced firsthand, as well as

174-540: A journalist for Radio La Voz del Minero (The Miner's Voice Radio) and served as legal counsel to the Catavi and 20th-century mining unions. Toward the end of the corruption- and violence-plagued Banzer dictatorship, del Granado was imprisoned and then exiled. In 1980, when he was able to return to La Paz, he served as legal counsel to the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) and several unions and social organizations. He

232-829: A law degree at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) in La Paz. As a law student, he was among the founders of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). He directed the Committee Interfacultativo UMSA, a body that defended the university's autonomy during the brutal dictatorship of Col. Hugo Banzer . Despite a climate of harsh political repression, he completed his studies and received his law degree in 1975. He continued his political activities and associations in North Potosi, where from 1975 to 1976 he worked as

290-524: A member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz from 1993 to 1999. del Granado gained notoriety for achieving in 1993 the first-ever successful prosecution of a Latin American dictator in the ordinary courts for crimes committed in office. Bolivia’s Supreme Court sentenced Gen. Luis García Meza Tejada , the "cocaine dictator," to 30 years in jail without parole or remission for murder, theft, fraud and subverting

348-779: A photograph of Altmann which the Klarsfelds obtained from a German expatriate living in Lima, Peru. In Peru, Barbie provided security services to the junta of General Juan Velasco Alvarado following the military coup of 3 October 1968 , including surveillance of the U.S. diplomatic mission led by John Irwin in March 1969. Led by Beate Klarsfeld, French journalist Ladislas de Hoyos and cameraman Christian van Ryswyck flew to La Paz in January 1972 in order to find and interview Barbie posing as his alias, Klaus Altmann. The interview took place on 3 February 1972 in

406-593: A result of Ryan's report and personal recommendation, the U.S. government made a formal apology to France for enabling Barbie to escape French justice for 33 years. In 1984, Barbie was indicted for crimes committed as Gestapo chief in Lyon between 1942 and 1944, chief among which was the Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup . The jury trial started on 11 May 1987 in Lyon before the Rhône Cour d'Assises . Unusually,

464-690: A role in the Bolivian coup d'état orchestrated by Luis García Meza in 1980. After the fall of the dictatorship, Barbie lost the protection of the government in La Paz . In 1983, he was arrested and extradited to France, where he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. Although he had been sentenced to death in absentia twice earlier, in 1947 and 1954, capital punishment had been abolished in France in 1981. Barbie died of cancer in prison in 1991, at age 77, in Lyon. Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie

522-500: A window while they were taking photos; shortly thereafter they were taken away by twelve armed paramilitary men who arrived in a van and asked what they were doing there. (McFarren himself returned to the house to describe this for a scene in the film Hotel Terminus . ) The testimony of Italian insurgent Stefano Delle Chiaie before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism suggests that Barbie took part in

580-472: The 2008 Bolivian recall election , and finally in a joint legislative slate in the 2009 general election . Four members of MSM were elected to serve in the lower house of Bolivia's Congress when the party was in alliance with the MAS-IPSP: Javier Zavaleta, Marcela Revollo, Fabián Yaksic, and Samuel Pamuri. The last three of those were elected to uninominal seats. [1] As part of a break between

638-518: The Medellín cartel in the late 1970s, and agreed to arrange for security of Escobar's raw coca supply, from its cultivation until it reached processing plants in Colombia. In exchange, Escobar agreed to fund Barbie's anti-communist activities. De Castro continued to correspond with Barbie when Barbie was later under arrest. Their connections also provided intelligence information to U.S. authorities at

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696-571: The Movement without Fear ( Movimiento Sin Miedo ); the party won La Paz's municipal elections that year. A tireless advocate of accountability and oversight, mayor del Granado cleaned up the city government and fought corruption. He also implemented major projects in the city. In 2004, he cruised to re-election, and his supporters won six of the eleven city council seats. He was succeeded as Mayor by Luis Revilla on 31 May 2010. Klaus Barbie Nikolaus Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991)

754-560: The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the U.S. Justice Department, recommended to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith that the matter be investigated. Following a lengthy investigation and a full report that was released to the public, Ryan concluded that "officers of the United States government were directly responsible for protecting a person wanted by the government of France on criminal charges and in arranging his escape from

812-575: The Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup which saw 84 people arrested in a single day. He arrested Jean Moulin , a high-ranking member of the French Resistance and his most prominent captive. In 1943, he was awarded the Iron Cross (First Class) by Adolf Hitler for his campaign against the French Resistance and the capture of Moulin. In April 1944, Barbie ordered the deportation to Auschwitz of

870-794: The "cocaine coup" of Luis García Meza , when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980. In February 1983, the newly elected democratic government of Hernán Siles Zuazo arrested Barbie in La Paz on the pretext of his owing the government US$ 10,000 for goods he was supposed to have delivered but did not. A few days later, the government delivered him to France to stand trial. Shortly after Barbie's extradition, evidence emerged that Barbie had worked for U.S. intelligence in Germany and that U.S. agents may have been instrumental in Barbie's flight to Bolivia to escape prosecution in France. Allan Ryan , Director of

928-659: The BND headquarters in Pullach . Barbie immigrated to Bolivia in 1951, where he lived well for 30 years in Cochabamba , under the alias Klaus Altmann. It was easier and less embarrassing for him to find employment there than in Europe; he enjoyed excellent relations with high-ranking Bolivian officials, including Bolivian dictators Hugo Banzer and Luis García Meza . "Altmann" was known for his German nationalist and anti-communist stances. While engaged in arms-trade operations in Bolivia, he

986-521: The Bolivian Interior Ministry with the rank of Lieutenant as an instructor and adviser to the security forces. During an interview, Alvaro de Castro claimed that Barbie constantly "boasted of hunting down Che". People who met Barbie during his time in Bolivia have said that he was a firm and fanatical believer in the Nazi ideology and an anti-Semite . Barbie and De Castro reportedly talked about

1044-914: The Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, where he was a tireless voice in defense of human rights. He also served on the Constitutional Committee, where he called for the enactment of laws which prompted the creation of Bolivia’s Ombudsman, the Constitutional Court and the Judicial Council. He has been a member of the Andean Commission of Jurists since 1996. He has published several books, analyses and reports on government transparency and has received several awards from human rights institutions and civil society. In 1999, he founded

1102-662: The Department of the Interior building and the following day, in prison, where Barbie was placed under protection by the Bolivian authorities. In the videotape, and while the interview was conducted in Spanish, Ladislas de Hoyos steers away from the previously agreed upon questions by asking whether Barbie has ever been to Lyon in French, a language he is not supposed to understand under his fake identity, to which Klaus Barbie automatically responds by

1160-527: The Fearless Movement as well, culminating in his formal detachment in February 2011. MAS-IPSP deputies have repeatedly threatened to remove the remaining deputies from their seats for non-adherence to their elected slate. In January 2012, the Fearless Movement proposed that the five uninominal seats representing the city of La Paz (including Zavaleta, Revollo, Yaksic, and Pamuri, as well as Guillermo Torres of

1218-625: The Gestapo. However, in the 1970s, the community of refugee Jews who had survived or escaped the war, openly discussed the fact that Barbie was the war criminal from Lyon now living on the Calle Landaeta in La Paz and frequenting the Café de La Paz daily. Journalist and reporter Peter McFarren and a journalist for The New York Times said that while they were outside Barbie's house in Bolivia in 1981, wanting to speak to him for an article, they saw Barbie in

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1276-523: The MAS-IPSP) be subjected to a recall referendum, thereby confirming or rejecting their current party allegiances. In the departmental and municipal elections on 4 April 2010, the MSM participated in 176 contests, winning the mayor's office in 21 municipalities. Luis Revilla won the municipality of La Paz , which marked the third time that the Fearless Movement has won a mayoral race. Also, Rossío Pimentel Flores, from

1334-506: The MSM and its ally the Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP) , the party's four deputies, elected on the MAS slate left the MAS ranks and pledged in late March 2010, "to act in accord with our political identity, with our conscience, and with the people who elected us with their vote." However, Samuel Pamuri quickly pledged his allegiance to the MAS-IPSP by April 2010. Javier Zavaleta distanced himself from

1392-460: The MSM, carried the municipality of Oruro, something unexpected, since the Movement for Socialism has enjoyed strong support from that city. The MSM has consolidated itself since then strongly in opposition to the ruling party. After President Evo Morales suggested he would run for re-election in 2014, Juan del Granado , the leader of the Fearless Movement, led the party to challenge its former ally,

1450-431: The Movement for Socialism, to submit Morales' proposal to a constitutional referendum. Simultaneously, del Granado stated that the MSM would present a candidate for president. On November 11, 2013, the MSM nominated del Granado as its candidate for president in the 2014 general elections . The results gave del Grando less than 3% of the vote, causing the party to lose its legal status. As a result, many of its members founded

1508-533: The Sovereignty and Liberty Party ( Soberanía y Libertad , SOL.BO) led by Luis Revilla . Juan del Granado Juan Fernando del Granado Cosío (born 26 March 1953), often referred to as Juan Sin Miedo , is a Bolivian human rights lawyer and politician who served as mayor of La Paz from 2000 to 2004 and 2005 to 2010. A member of the Fearless Movement , of which he was leader, he previously served as

1566-449: The U.S. Embassy. A group called "The Fiancés of Death", which included German Nazis and Fascists, had links to some of Barbie's actions in Bolivia. Barbie earlier also carried out a large arms purchase of tanks from Austria to the Bolivian army. These were then used in a coup d'état. According to various reports, after the emergence of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1966, Barbie's anti-partisan skills were in demand again, and he worked for

1624-465: The age of 77. In April 1939, Barbie became engaged to Regina Margaretta Willms, the 23-year-old daughter of a postal clerk; they had two children, a son named Klaus-Georg Altmann and a daughter named Ute Messner. In 1983, Françoise Croizier, Klaus Barbie's French daughter-in-law, said in an interview that the CIA kidnapped Klaus-Georg in 1946 to make sure that his father carried out intelligence missions for

1682-411: The backing of cocaine traffickers, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and foreign mercenaries, who killed, tortured and persecuted labor and political leaders and journalists. They had overthrown a democratically elected government, dissolved Congress and outlawed political parties. In 1993, del Granado was elected to Congress as a member of the party Movimiento Bolivia Libre . As a congressman, he served as

1740-456: The cases and searches for Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann , whom Barbie supported and wanted to assist in remaining on the run. Barbie was identified as being in Peru in 1971 by Serge and Beate Klarsfeld ( Nazi hunters from France), who came across a secret document that revealed his alias. On 19 January 1972, this information was published in the French newspaper L'Aurore , along with

1798-467: The constitution. Despite its brevity, Garcia Meza's rule became notorious for its links to the cocaine trade and its use of paramilitary squads run by fascist mercenaries from Italy, Germany, France, Chile and Argentina. At least 50 people died, over 20 disappeared and thousands were arrested, imprisoned and tortured before it fell to a coup by dissident officers in August 1981. The best-known of his foreign aides

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1856-617: The court allowed the trial to be filmed because of its historical value. A special courtroom was constructed with seating for an audience of about 700. The head prosecutor was Pierre Truche ; Barbie's role in Hitler's Final Solution was the issue. One witness at the trial was Michel Thomas , a Polish polyglot Jew, who had narrowly escaped arrest by Barbie in Lyon during World War II, an account of which appears in Christopher Robbins' biography, Test of Courage . Barbie's defence

1914-478: The dictatorial regime on how to repress opposition through torture. In 1983, the United States apologised to France for the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps helping him escape to Bolivia, aiding Barbie's escape from an outstanding arrest warrant. In 1972, it was discovered he was in Bolivia. While in Bolivia, the West German Intelligence Service recruited him. Barbie is suspected of having had

1972-571: The historic French colonial empire . His strategy was to use the trial to talk about war crimes committed by France since 1945. He got the prosecution to drop some of the charges against Barbie due to French legislation that had protected French citizens accused of the same crimes under the Vichy regime and in French Algeria . Vergès argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the supposedly ordinary actions of colonialists worldwide, and that his trial

2030-644: The identities of former SS officers British intelligence agencies might be interested in recruiting. Later, the CIC housed him in a hotel in Memmingen ; he reported on French intelligence activities in the French zone of occupied Germany because they suspected that the French had been infiltrated by the KGB and GPU . The US Department of Justice report to the US Senate in 1983 opens with

2088-507: The illegal drug trade and, together with Barbie (under the name Altmann) and an Austrian company, sold weapons to the drug cartels. When De Castro was arrested he admitted in interviews that he had earlier worked for drug lords in the country. Other sources say Barbie most likely also had connections with these organizations. Initially, he worked for Roberto Suárez Gómez who eventually introduced him to Colombian traffickers. Barbie met with Pablo Escobar and several other high ranking members of

2146-704: The law." Ryan felt that the initial decision by the U.S. government to use Barbie during Cold War counter-intelligence work, while reprehensible in light of his war crimes, might be defended on national security interest grounds. Doing so was no different from what other World War II victor nations were doing at the time; it appeared to have been done without any U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) knowledge of Barbie's atrocities in Lyon. After those atrocities became well publicised, however, Ryan regarded it as indefensible for CIC personnel to lie to higher U.S. authorities and help Barbie escape Europe to Bolivia rather than honour an outstanding French warrant for his arrest. As

2204-564: The local school where his father taught. Afterwards, he attended a boarding school in Trier , and was relieved to be away from his father, who abused him. In 1925, the entire Barbie family moved to Trier. In June 1933, Barbie's younger brother Kurt died, at the age of 18, of a chronic illness. Later that year, their father also died. The death of his father derailed plans for the 20-year-old Barbie to study theology , or otherwise become an academic, as his peers had expected. While unemployed, Barbie

2262-442: The name that he used while in Bolivia. He claimed that his extradition was technically illegal and asked to be excused from the trial and returned to his cell at Prison Saint-Paul . This was granted. He was brought back to court on 26 May 1987 to face some of his accusers, about whose testimony he had "nothing to say". Barbie's defence lawyer, Jacques Vergès, had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in

2320-496: The negative in German. Ladislas de Hoyos gave him photos of members of Resistance he had tortured, asking him if he recognized their faces, and, while he returned them in denial, his fingerprints unmistakably betrayed him. It was in this interview, later broadcast on French TV Channel Antenne 2 , that he was recognized by French resistance member Simone Lagrange, who had been tortured by Klaus Barbie in 1944. Despite global outcry, Barbie

2378-583: The network of German spies the CIC had planted in various European communist organisations. It was suspicious of communist influence within the Government of France, but their protection of Barbie may have been as much to avoid the embarrassment of having recruited him in the first place. Other authors have suggested that the anticommunist element of Italian fascism and the protection of the Vatican allowed Klaus Barbie and other Nazis to flee to Bolivia. In 1965, Barbie

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2436-415: The others were given sentences up to 30 years. President Jaime Paz Zamora said the verdict symbolized the "recovery of the country's dignity and the strengthening of the democratic system." "It is not only a question of punishing those responsible for crimes but of ending political actions based on murder, assault and theft," said del Granado. Gen. Luis García Meza Tejada had staged a coup on July 17, 1980 with

2494-485: The regime's crimes against human rights were arrested and many fell victim to so-called " disappearances ", the state's secret murders and abductions of leftists. Barbie actively participated in the regime's oppression of opponents. Barbie was strongly linked to the neo-Nazi paramilitary member Álvaro de Castro, who was his personally hired bodyguard and the two participated in criminal actions and businesses together. De Castro had connections with powerful drug barons and

2552-444: The summary paragraph: As the investigation of Klaus Barbie has shown, officers of the United States government were directly responsible for protecting a person wanted by the government of France on criminal charges and in arranging his escape from the law. As a direct result of that action, Klaus Barbie did not stand trial in France in 1950; he spent 33 years as a free man and a fugitive from justice. The French discovered that Barbie

2610-615: Was a German officer of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II . He became known as the " Butcher of Lyon " for having personally tortured prisoners—primarily Jews and members of the French Resistance —as the head of the Gestapo in Lyon . After the war, United States intelligence services employed him for his anti-communist efforts and aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised

2668-526: Was able to return to Bolivia, where the government refused to extradite him, stating that France and Bolivia did not have an extradition treaty and that the statute of limitations on his crimes had expired. Barbie's close fascist friends knew who he was, but to the public Barbie insisted he was none other than his innocent alter-ego "Altmann"; in the videotaped interview conducted by Ladislas de Hoyos, which he allowed, he continued to lie about never having been in Lyon, never knowing Jean Moulin or having been in

2726-522: Was again driven into exile during the brutal "narco-dictatorship" of Gen. Luis García Meza Tejada (1980–81). In 1984, he undertook the prosecution of Meza Tejada, a process that would last more than nearly a decade. On 21 April 1993, Bolivia’s Supreme Court found Meza Tejada guilty of murder, theft, fraud and subverting the constitution, and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Sixteen members of his Cabinet and 42 paramilitary and civilian collaborators were also tried, eleven in absentia. Six were acquitted and

2784-674: Was appointed to the rank of lieutenant colonel within the Bolivian Armed Forces . Barbie collaborated with René Barrientos 's regime, including teaching the general's private paramilitaries named "Furmont" how torture can best be used. The regime's political repression against leftist groups was helped by Barbie's knowledge about intelligence work, torture and interrogations. In 1972 under General Banzer (with whom Barbie collaborated even more openly), he assisted in illegal arrests, interrogations and murders of opposition and progressive groups. Journalists and activists who wrote or spoke about

2842-802: Was assigned to Amsterdam. He had been pre-assigned to Adolf Eichmann 's Amt (Department) IV/B-4. This department was responsible for the identification, roundup, and deportation of Dutch Communists, Jews and Freemasons . On 11 October 1940, Barbie arrested Hermannus van Tongeren  [ nl ] , Grand Master of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands . In March 1941, van Tongeren was transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp where, in freezing conditions, he died two weeks later. On 1 April, Barbie summoned van Tongeren's daughter, Charlotte, to SD headquarters and informed her that her father had died of an infection in both ears and had been cremated. In 1942, he

2900-452: Was beaten and his skin torn, and that his head was immersed in buckets of ammonia and cold water; he could not sit or stand and died three days later from burns to his skin. Other tortures included training German shepherd dogs to bite and using them to rape naked women. It has been estimated that Barbie was directly responsible for the deportation of up to 14,000 Jews and resistance fighters, personally participating in roundups such as

2958-575: Was born on 25 October 1913 in Godesberg , which is today part of Bonn . The Barbie family came from Merzig , in the Saar near the border with France . In 1914, his father, also named Nikolaus, was conscripted to fight in the First World War . He was wounded in the neck at Verdun and captured by the French, whom he hated, and he never recovered his health. Until 1923, when he was 10, Klaus Barbie attended

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3016-669: Was conscripted into the Reich Labour Service . On 26 September 1935, aged 22, he joined the SS (member 272,284), and began working in the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the SS security service, which acted as the intelligence -gathering arm of the Nazi Party . On 1 May 1937, he became member 4,583,085 of the Nazi Party. After the German conquest and occupation of the Netherlands, Barbie

3074-469: Was funded by Swiss pro-Nazi financier François Genoud and led by attorney Jacques Vergès . Barbie was tried on 41 separate counts of crimes against humanity , based on the depositions of 730 Jews and French Resistance survivors who described how he tortured and murdered prisoners. The father of French Minister for Justice Robert Badinter had died in Sobibor after being deported from Lyon during Barbie's tenure. Barbie gave his name as Klaus Altmann,

3132-445: Was in U.S. hands; having sentenced him to death in absentia for war crimes , they made a plea to John J. McCloy , US High Commissioner for Germany, to hand him over for execution, but McCloy refused. Instead, the CIC helped him flee to Bolivia assisted by " ratlines " organised by US intelligence services, as well as by Croatian Roman Catholic clergy, including Krunoslav Draganović . The CIC asserted that Barbie knew too much about

3190-405: Was recruited by the West German foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), under the codename "Adler" ( German for 'Eagle') and the registration number V-43118. His initial monthly salary of 500 Deutsche Marks was transferred in May 1966 to an account of the Chartered Bank of London in San Francisco . During his time with the BND, Barbie made at least 35 reports to

3248-404: Was sent to Dijon , in the Occupied Zone of France. In November of the same year, at the age of 29, he was assigned to Lyon as the head of the local Gestapo . He established his headquarters at the Hôtel Terminus in Lyon, where he personally tortured adult and child prisoners. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon". The daughter of a French Resistance leader based in Lyon said her father

3306-536: Was tantamount to selective prosecution . During his trial, Barbie said, "When I stand before the throne of God, I shall be judged innocent." Barbie's final statement, spoken in French, was: "I did not commit the raid on Izieu. I fought the Résistance and that was the war, and today the war is over. Thank you". The court rejected the defence's argument, and on 4 July 1987, Barbie was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in Lyon (of leukemia , and spine and prostate cancer) four years later, at

3364-410: Was the Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie , who was extradited to France in 1983, where he died in jail. As a prosecutor, del Granado was demonstrably fearless in the pursuit of justice, and shrugged off continual death threats. He is a relative of Bolivian poet Javier del Granado . His wife, Marcela Revollo , served as an MSM deputy in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly . Juan del Granado received

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