Triston Jay Amero

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Triston Jay Amero (died April 1, 2008), a.k.a. Claudio Lestad, a.k.a. Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo (the names Lestat and Claudius coming from two different characters in Anne Rice's novels) and John Scheda, from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, was arrested for the hotel bombings that killed two people and wounded seven others in Bolivia on Wednesday, March 22, 2006.^[1] The bombings damaged two low rent hotels. The attack killed two people and injured seven. A third bombing was stopped. He was eventually found guilty of murder.

Amero had reportedly been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and had been in juvenile prison several times, beginning at the age of seven. He had wandered around Latin America for some years before settling in the Bolivian city of Potosí in 2004. In posts from Colombia to his blog he repeatedly described himself as a loner, a "political refugee" and "the Superman of Loosers" [sic] whose strongest desire was to distance himself from the United States.

Although the Bolivian police were unsure of the motive for the bombings that led to Amero's arrest, President Evo Morales declared: "This American was putting bombs in hotels." "The U.S. government fights terrorism, and they send us terrorists," he said. Morales denounced the bombings as an attack on Bolivia's democracy. He called it "typical of terrorist crime." This caused a brief cooling of U.S.-Bolivian relations.^[2]

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

Amero and an accomplice, Alda Riveiro of Uruguay, were arrested by police in a hotel in the slum of El Alto, formally charged with murder, and were held in a maximum security prison near La Paz. While there, Amero attempted to stab his lawyer and had gasoline hidden in his cell, with plans to set fire to a prison official and a U.S. diplomat.^[3] Amero was sentenced to 30 years in prison on January 23, 2008.

At the age of 26, Amero died in a hospital on April 1, 2008, after complaining of stomach pains while in prison.^[2]