New Orleans man, girlfriend linked to hotel bombings

LA PAZ, Bolivia – An American man and his Uruguayan girl-friend were arrested Wednesday after bombs severely damaged two low-budget hotels in Bolivia’s capital, killing two people and injuring at least seven.

Police said they believe the pair had “religious motives” for the attack and had plans to bomb the Chilean consulate in La Paz on Saturday, according to Isaac Pemintel, the national police chief.

Police initially said the blasts were “typical of terrorist crime,” and President Evo Morales lost no time in denouncing them as an attack on Bolivia’s democracy.

“This American was putting bombs in hotels,” Morales said. “The U.S. government fights terrorism, and they send us terrorists.”

But other Bolivian officials discounted terrorism as a motive, saying the American appeared to be mentally ill.

“The possible motives behind these attacks are incomprehensible. There don’t seem to be any concrete objectives other than causing deaths,” Deputy Interior Minister Rafael Puente told Radio Fides.

Police identified the suspects as Claudio Lestad, 24, of New Orleans, and Alda Ribeiro, 40, of Uruguay, though authorities said Lestad was carrying altered documents and uses various names, including “Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo.”

Lestad, who was born in California, registered himself at the hotel as a lawyer of Saudi Arabian nationality but also calls himself a priest, Pemintel said.

The Washington, D.C.-based World Service Authority, a human rights advocacy group, identified the suspect as Triston Jay Amero and said he had sought to renounce his citizenship after getting into trouble with the law in California.