IRMS and Bolivia

Recently Jim Farrell, head of IRMS security, gave me a brief interview in Glengad, Co Mayo, where I got a chance to ask him what he knew about so many IRMS staff getting involved in the alleged Evo Morales assassination plot in Bolivia.

Unfortunately he didn't shine too much light on this topic.

Farrell told me that for command and control reasons his staff operated in groups of six. These teams are called Alpha, Bravo etc.

“Close to 100 people lost their job here at the end of last year,” said Farrell. “This is seasonal work. Some fill the gap by going home to see their families in Poland while some do training. Some of Mike’s (Dwyer) group spoke about doing a close-protection course. He was trained as an engineer. So he was more qualified to get other work when that course didn’t work out and he decided to stay (in Bolivia). Who knows what happened then, as we lost all visibility of him when he left us.”

The IRMS boss said it was “unacceptable” that Tibor Revesz, who travelled with Dwyer to Bolivia, had been selling military-like badges commemorating security operations on the Shell project on his personal website. He said Revesz had passed all security and other checks before IRMS employed him. He gave me the impression that Revesz was forced to leave the company over his selling of these badges on his personal website earlier this year. Farrell insisted there was nothing sinister involved.

“We would never allow anyone to wear insignias on the job,” he said. “I think they were trying to create mementos and it was as innocent as that. It was schoolboy stuff but it’s not acceptable.”

There are many unanswered questions about what Dwyer and his friends from IRMS thought they were getting involved with in Bolivia. Edit Toaso, the sister of one of those arrested in the police raid, told me Revesz emailed her to say the group were not in Bolvia to assasinate anyone. There was no cogent explanation of what they were planning though.

She insists the group weren't terrorists but admits she doens't really understand what her brother was doing in Bolivia.

Edit said she was bemused by the portrayal of the Szekler Legion group as right wingers. She said the Legion was more a "survival group" involved in hiking but that explanation doesn't really wash either.

Much has been made of this apparent right-wing link to IRMS by anti-Shell activists. As Michael Clifford in the Sunday Tribune points out much of this is distasteful and jumps to conclusions about Dwyer and others.

Until Revesz or any of the other eastern Europeans involved decide to talk about what they were doing then we are left relying on the Bolivian authorities for any substantial information about their activities South America.