U.S. Man Charged In Bolivian Bombings

Has History Of Mental Problems, Describes Self As 'Superman Of Loosers'

(AP) 
"It's been a while that he's been trying to get out of the U.S. system," Gallup said. "Finally he made it to Latin America."

The couple also perpetrated attacks in other Bolivian cities that left no victims, La Paz district attorney Jorge Gutierrez said.

Amero applied for Bolivian residency in January, and told Gallup he was passing the New Year in Potosi, Bolivia, a mining community where sticks of dynamite are sold out of stalls at a market open to all.

In La Paz, Ribeiro was giving away calendars — with a nude picture of herself holding a cardboard box of explosives — promoting "the sale and export of explosives, fireworks and liquor," said Marta Silva, who owns a store across from one of the bombed hotels.

The bombings Tuesday night and Wednesday morning killed two Bolivians. The injured included a U.S. citizen identified as Jessica Wilson, who was treated and released. Police said they used 110 dynamite cartridges in each attack, hoping to kill 150 people, and were planning a third bombing of the Chilean consulate — a charge denied by Amero.

Police said the motive may have been "religious" — Amero told them he was a practicing pagan high priest — and that Amero had hoped the bombings would gain him allies through media coverage, district attorney Carlos Fiorilo Thursday.

Morales denounced the crimes as an attack on Bolivia's democracy, and angrily blamed the United States: "This American was putting bombs in hotels," Morales said. "The U.S. government fights terrorism, and they send us terrorists."

U.S. diplomats countered with a statement Thursday condemning the bombings and expressing "concern" and "surprise" over Morales' remarks. "Declarations such as these impede our efforts and block our capacity to cooperate" in anti-terrorism efforts, the U.S. Embassy in La Paz said in a statement Thursday.

In his blog from Colombia and in his communications to the advocacy group, Amero repeatedly describes himself as a loner, a "political refugee" and "the Superman of Loosers" whose strongest desire is to distance himself from the United States.

His aunt, Paula Amero of Forest Ranch, California, told the AP Thursday that "he didn't need to be locked up" in California.

And Amero's mother, Dawna Scheda of Placerville, California, told the AP that "Of course we don't believe he would do something like this. He's my son."

But Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe said they had concluded he was a danger to himself and others. "He is a very disturbed man, and given his past, I think he would be fully capable of doing this."