Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano
Encyclopedia
Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano (November 28, 1960 – May 10, 2009) was a Guatemala
n attorney. Before his death, Rosenberg recorded a video message saying if he were murdered, Álvaro Colom Caballeros
, President of Guatemala
, would have been directly responsible. His subsequent killing caused a national uproar. However, an investigation by a United Nations
commission determined that Rosenberg had arranged his own death and had contacted cousins of his former wife to hire a hitman. According to Carlos Castresana, the head of the UN comission that investigated the case, the hypothesis presented was only provisional. The cousins accused were sent to jail for complicity in a trial behind closed doors.
in Guatemala City
. He earned a Master of Arts degree in International Law and Comparative Law from the University of Cambridge
and a Master of Arts in Commercial Law and International Law from Harvard University
.
In 1987 Rosenberg co-founded Rosenberg-Marzano, Marroquin-Pemueller & Asociados, S.C., a law firm. He specialized in Business/Commercial, Corporate, International, Trademark, Constitutional, Tax, and Procedural Law. He was also on the legal staff of Rodríguez Mahuad & Asociados, another law firm, and was appointed Vice-Dean of the Law School at Rafael Landívar University. He also served as president of the Board of Directors of CENAC Foundation (Center for Arbitration and Mediation).
. He was approached by an assassin who came down a grassy knoll and shot him in the back. The killer ran around Rosenberg's left side and fired another bullet down his cheek, which exited from his neck, and another, which did not exit, into his neck. The killer then knelt on his right side and placed the gun under Rosenberg's jaw, firing another bullet that tore through Rosenberg's eye and went out his left temple. Finally, the murderer moved the gun to Rosenberg's forehead as it faced away from him and fired a final shot, which lodged in his brain.
In an 18-minute videotape recorded prior to his death he said that President
Álvaro Colom
wanted him dead and would be responsible should he be murdered: "If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Álvaro Colom, with help from [Colom's private secretary)] Gustavo Alejos."
Rosenberg claimed his death would be due to his involvement with two clients: Khalil Musa, a prominent businessman, and Musa's daughter, Marjorie, who were both assassinated in April 2009. Khalil Musa had been nominated by members of President Colom's government to serve on the board of Guatemala's Banrural (Rural Development) bank.
Rosenberg claimed the President, Sandra de Colom
(the First Lady of Guatemala), members of the Colom Administration, and their business associates were using Banrural to embezzle and launder money, and because Musa would not tolerate this corruption he was assassinated. The video called for Colom to step down and Vice President of Guatemala
Rafael Espada
to replace him. It ended with,
and broadcast on national television, precipitated a political crisis in Guatemala. Protesters demonstrated in Guatemala City's Central Plaza, and opponents urged him to step down from office.
The controversy escalated when Attorney-General and Head of the Public Prosecutor's Office Amílcar Velásquez was seen leaving Colom's private residence]. After their meeting, the two dignitaries gave contradictory reasons for their meeting, which raised skepticism about the impartiality of the investigation. President Colom appeared on national television to reject Rosenberg's accusations and called for both the United Nations
and the FBI to investigate.
In an interview with CNN Español, Colom asserted the Rosenberg video was "completely fake", thus challenging early reports from the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
(CICIG), which validated its authenticity.
On May 13, 2009, the United States Ambassador to Guatemala, Stephen G. McFarland
, confirmed that FBI personnel had arrived in Guatemala to aid in the investigation.
At least one blogger, Jean Anleu Fernández, was arrested on charges of "inciting financial panic" after he urged readers to withdraw deposits from Banrural. Anleu had suggested on the social messaging network Twitter
that all account holders should withdraw their funds from Banrural. He was placed under house arrest on May 14, 2009. Anleu's short message, "Primera accion real ’sacar el pisto de Banrural’ quebrar al banco de los corruptos," resulted in a judge ordering his detention and suggesting a fine of up to GTQ
50,000. Attempts to censor Anleu's message backfired, because of internet phenomenon called the Streisand effect
. A Guatemalan appeals court ruled on 10 July 2009 that the case lacked merit. Some US$7,000 was spent on Anleu's legal fees, half contributed by Twitter users by Paypal
.
In January 2010, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
(CICIG), a commission in charge of recommending governmental change backed by the UN and the Guatemalan government, announced the results of its own investigation, concluding that Rosenberg had arranged his own death. He allegedly asked two cousins of his ex-wife to arrange the assassination of a man he claimed was blackmailing him. However, the target was, according to the CICIG, himself. The cousins supposedly contracted eleven guns-for-hire
, most of whom were former or current police officers and one ex-military.
Rosenberg supposedly used an anonymous cell phone to call his personal cell phone number, creating the appearance of death threats and to call the hit men on the morning of his death. Investigators traced the phone to his driver from a sales tax receipt.
The CICIG commission said Rosenberg had been depressed over the murder of the Musas, and especially of Marjorie Musa, with whom he had had a relationship. According to the CICIG, he was convinced the government had killed Marjorie, but lacked the evidence required to pursue the matter in court. They concluded from this that his death therefore was simply a bizarre suicide. In light of the discovery, Vice-President Rafael Espada (who Rosenberg had called on to replace President Colom) denied having any contact with Rosenberg or anyone close to him before the murder. More recent information about the Musas' murder indicated that Khalil Musa had finally declined the board of directors nomination, and that a more likely suspect for his murder than government officials was "a criminal network" from whom he had purchased "contraband for his textile factory". Several of the people arrested for the killing of Rodrigo Rosenberg were also arrested on 22 September 2010 for participating in the murder of the Musas, including one of the men who was freed for testifying against the Valdés brothers, Mario Paz Mejía. Paz Mejía's brother Wilfredo Antonio Paz Mejía was also implicated in their murder.
Mario Paz Mejía, a policeman with connections in high places in the Guatemalan Government, was one of the people captured and originally accused of the murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg in October of 2009, six months after the murder. His version that José and Francisco Valdés Pais, relatives of Rosenberg’s ex-wife, were the masterminds in Rosenberg’s murder was seconded months later by the rest of the members of the band involved in the operation that ended in Rosenberg’s killing. Paz Mejía was eventually freed for collaborating with the authorities.
According to Lucas Josué Santiago López, one of the other members who had no previous record, Paz Mejía threatened and at the same time offered money for Lucas’ family, to force him to say that he, Lucas Santiago, had done the shooting. Lucas Santiago’s testimony in court about Paz Mejía’s role in the killing, the threats and bribery were ignored and the original sentence increased for not collaborating.
Paz Mejía was freed, in spite of Castresana’s guarantee during the presentation that no one would go free, that the judge would only reduce his sentence, and he remained free until evidence of his participation in the killing of Rodrigo Rosenberg’s clients, Khalil and Marjorie Musa, could no longer be denied. Interestingly, Lucas Santiago is once again the alleged hit man in the murder of the Musas.
Months before Carlos Castresana publicly hypothesized that Rosenberg had killed himself, Ovidio Batz Tax, another self-declared witness, was given money to say that people in the opposition party had Rodrigo Rosenberg killed. Journalists were taken in the first lady’s, Sandra Torres’, helicopter by Salvador Gandara, the minister of Gobernación, the state ministry in charge of security matters, to hear the witness make his declaration. Sandra Torres, along with her husband, the President of Guatemala, was one of the people accused in Rosenberg’s video. The minister was seen paying the witness and the journalists.
Another alleged connection between the killers and José and Francisco Valdés came from a number in the memory of one or more of the phones confiscated from the intermediary of the group, Jesús Manuel Cardona Medina, alias Memín, cousin to one of the band members. The number corresponded to a cell phone which belonged to the company owned by the Valdés brothers. The phone was used by Nelson Wilfredo Santos Estrada, the Valdés’ chief of Security. Nelson Santos has never appeared to testify.
A year and a half after Castresana’s public conclusions, the cousins themselves are in jail, having been found guilty of "complicity" in the killing of Rosenberg. The main link between them and the killers is the testimony of ten of the members of the band. All ten of them, unanimously “…confirmed for us that the only people implicated are the Valdés brothers, and no one else, no minister, no chief of police, and no official.” This is the same band that Castresana declared to have had a history of murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and extortion.
The next linkage involves a check sent by the cousin of one of the men accused by Rosenberg in his famous video. A check for US$40,000 was sent by Luis Alejos, cousin to Gustavo Alejos, the president's private secretary, and brother of the general secretary of the party in power. It arrived in Rodrigo Rosenberg’s office three days after he was killed. Rosenberg’s secretary testified she had instructions from Rosenberg to deliver the check to his ex-wife’s cousin, Francisco Valdés. The check didn’t have either Rosenberg's or Valdés' name on it, but was, according to Carlos Castresana, the payment for the killing, three days after the murder. The check itself was never presented as evidence.
Eventually, the band members, several of them ex-policemen, testified one by one that they had been paid Q
300,000, the equivalent in dollars to the check supposedly sent by Luis Alejos. One exception was the only alleged intermediary in custody, Jesus Manuel Cardona Medina, who refused to admit for a long time that they had been paid more than Q50,000. This is the same man who refused to “ask for forgiveness” for the killing because he felt that eliminating an extortionist was a "humanitarian gesture." For both cases of intransigence, he was threatened with having his status as collaborator removed. Unlike Paz Mejía, the man who pulled the trigger in this operation, Cardona Medina was found guilty and never freed from jail, although he did receive a reduction in his prison term.
The man who sent the check was head of the Ministry of Communications of Guatemala.
The first direct association between Rosenberg and his killers is testimony by alleged experts
in telecommunications who gave evidence that Rosenberg used the cell phone that
was used to make the threats to his personal number. The cell phone the threats
originated from was never found, even though Rosenberg supposedly used it minutes
before his murder, but the owner of the phone was found, Rodrigo Rosenberg’s
bodyguard, Luis López Florián.
Luis López Florián was Rodrigo Rosenberg’s man Friday. He drove for him, was his
bodyguard and was even front man for some of his businesses, such as Landosa Digital, S.A. The store receipt had his name on it; he was recorded on video in the place and time the phone was purchased. He eventually said he bought a second phone, at a different place, which did not have a record of his name and which he said he thought he had delivered to the Valdés brothers. This second phone operated in the vicinity of Rosenberg when first purchased and then later in the environs of the intermediary, Cardona Medina. This phone was purportedly delivered to Cardona through the chief of Security of the Valdés', one of the men who was never been found. It was not stated by Castresana whether the phone was ever found among Cardona Medina's possessions, only that it operated in his vicinity.
“Entries” were made into Rosenberg’s accounting records for the purchase of the phones;
exactly by whom the entries were made is not made clear by Castresana’s presentation,
only implied by the word secretariat. The customer receipts were never publicly
presented as evidence, only the store receipts were, and only one of them with López's name on it. Aside from López Florián, there were over 300 policemen involved
in the case, close to a dozen officials from the Guatemalan Public Ministry, and several
CICIG investigators any of whom, at one time or another, could have had access to the records, especially before the suicide theory was settled on, nine months after the murder.
“On 8 September 2009, the Fiscalía listened to a conversation in which Santos Divas was warned by another member of the band that López had made a document telling about the Rosenberg crime and left it with a general in the Army who would make it public if anything happened to him.” Which Lopez is not specified in the Prensa Libre article titled: Agendas Disclose Contact Between Killers and Police. (Agendas delatan contacto de sicarios con policías. 24/05/10.) Willian [sic] Gilberto Santos Divas was in the car with Mario Paz Mejía during the operation.
Rodrigo Rosenberg spoke by cell phone with López Florián two minutes before he left his apartment that fateful morning, and told him he was going out for a bike ride. It is at this time that the killers received information about their target, "el venado," who was slaughtered ten minutes later. Castresana alleged, but gave no proof other than the telecommunications expert's testimony on the cell-phone's supposed location on that
morning, that this information was given by Rosenberg himself. The phone itself was never presented as evidence. López Florián called Rodrigo’s son while close to the scene of the crime, shortly after the murder, to inform him of his father's death.
Approximately half an hour before Rosenberg rode away from his apartment to his death, a person walking some dogs saw a man wearing a suit sitting on the curb where Rosenberg was soon killed. The witness called and reported this fact to the police within minutes of the sighting, but the report was ignored; it never came out in the investigation.
The CICIG, however, was at the scene of the crime, together with the vice-minister of Gobernación very shortly after Rosenberg's death, while his body still lay in situ. One of the top ministers in the government and a United Nations international commission investigating, on a Sunday morning, what should not have been anything other than one of fifteen ordinary murders taking place daily in Guatemala. The video that made it national and international news would not come out until the next day.
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
n attorney. Before his death, Rosenberg recorded a video message saying if he were murdered, Álvaro Colom Caballeros
Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom Caballeros is the President of Guatemala for the 2008–2012 term and leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope .-Early years:...
, President of Guatemala
President of Guatemala
The title of President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1839, when that title was assumed by Mariano Rivera Paz...
, would have been directly responsible. His subsequent killing caused a national uproar. However, an investigation by a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
commission determined that Rosenberg had arranged his own death and had contacted cousins of his former wife to hire a hitman. According to Carlos Castresana, the head of the UN comission that investigated the case, the hypothesis presented was only provisional. The cousins accused were sent to jail for complicity in a trial behind closed doors.
Career
Rosenberg graduated with honors from Rafael Landívar UniversityRafael Landívar University
Universidad Rafael Landívar is a private, Jesuit University in Guatemala. The main campus is in Zone 16 of Guatemala City and is known as Vista Hermosa III, and there are satellite campuses in Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, Cobán, Zacapa and other parts of the country.Many recent Guatemalan...
in Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
. He earned a Master of Arts degree in International Law and Comparative Law from the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and a Master of Arts in Commercial Law and International Law from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
In 1987 Rosenberg co-founded Rosenberg-Marzano, Marroquin-Pemueller & Asociados, S.C., a law firm. He specialized in Business/Commercial, Corporate, International, Trademark, Constitutional, Tax, and Procedural Law. He was also on the legal staff of Rodríguez Mahuad & Asociados, another law firm, and was appointed Vice-Dean of the Law School at Rafael Landívar University. He also served as president of the Board of Directors of CENAC Foundation (Center for Arbitration and Mediation).
Alleged assassination
Rosenberg was shot dead on May 10, 2009, while cycling in Guatemala CityGuatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
. He was approached by an assassin who came down a grassy knoll and shot him in the back. The killer ran around Rosenberg's left side and fired another bullet down his cheek, which exited from his neck, and another, which did not exit, into his neck. The killer then knelt on his right side and placed the gun under Rosenberg's jaw, firing another bullet that tore through Rosenberg's eye and went out his left temple. Finally, the murderer moved the gun to Rosenberg's forehead as it faced away from him and fired a final shot, which lodged in his brain.
In an 18-minute videotape recorded prior to his death he said that President
President of Guatemala
The title of President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1839, when that title was assumed by Mariano Rivera Paz...
Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom Caballeros is the President of Guatemala for the 2008–2012 term and leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope .-Early years:...
wanted him dead and would be responsible should he be murdered: "If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Álvaro Colom, with help from [Colom's private secretary)] Gustavo Alejos."
Rosenberg claimed his death would be due to his involvement with two clients: Khalil Musa, a prominent businessman, and Musa's daughter, Marjorie, who were both assassinated in April 2009. Khalil Musa had been nominated by members of President Colom's government to serve on the board of Guatemala's Banrural (Rural Development) bank.
Rosenberg claimed the President, Sandra de Colom
Sandra Torres (politician)
Sandra Julieta Torres Casanova is the former First Lady of Guatemala. Along with her ex-husband, President Alvaro Colom Caballeros, she is of Guatemalan nationality, originally from the county of Melchor de Mencos, in the department of Petén...
(the First Lady of Guatemala), members of the Colom Administration, and their business associates were using Banrural to embezzle and launder money, and because Musa would not tolerate this corruption he was assassinated. The video called for Colom to step down and Vice President of Guatemala
Vice President of Guatemala
Vice President of Guatemala is a political position in Guatemala which is since 1966 elected concurrently with the position of President of Guatemala. Latest Vice President who took over as President was Gustavo Espina in 1993....
Rafael Espada
Rafael Espada
Dr. José Rafael Espada is the Vice President of Guatemala and a former cardiothoracic surgeon.Espada is well known in the Houston cardiothoracic surgery community. He grew up in Guatemala. From an early age he wanted to grow up to be a doctor...
to replace him. It ended with,
"... the only reality that counts is this: if you saw and heard this message, it is because I was killed by Álvaro Colom and Sandra de Colom, with the help of Gustavo Alejos. Guatemalans, the time has come. Please — it is time. Good afternoon."
Video aftermath
The airing of the video at Rosenberg's funeral, then uploaded to YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and broadcast on national television, precipitated a political crisis in Guatemala. Protesters demonstrated in Guatemala City's Central Plaza, and opponents urged him to step down from office.
The controversy escalated when Attorney-General and Head of the Public Prosecutor's Office Amílcar Velásquez was seen leaving Colom's private residence]. After their meeting, the two dignitaries gave contradictory reasons for their meeting, which raised skepticism about the impartiality of the investigation. President Colom appeared on national television to reject Rosenberg's accusations and called for both the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and the FBI to investigate.
In an interview with CNN Español, Colom asserted the Rosenberg video was "completely fake", thus challenging early reports from the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala is an international body charged with investigating and prosecuting serious crime in Guatemala...
(CICIG), which validated its authenticity.
On May 13, 2009, the United States Ambassador to Guatemala, Stephen G. McFarland
Stephen G. McFarland
Stephen George McFarland is an American career diplomat and United States Ambassador to Guatemala .-Background:...
, confirmed that FBI personnel had arrived in Guatemala to aid in the investigation.
At least one blogger, Jean Anleu Fernández, was arrested on charges of "inciting financial panic" after he urged readers to withdraw deposits from Banrural. Anleu had suggested on the social messaging network Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
that all account holders should withdraw their funds from Banrural. He was placed under house arrest on May 14, 2009. Anleu's short message, "Primera accion real ’sacar el pisto de Banrural’ quebrar al banco de los corruptos," resulted in a judge ordering his detention and suggesting a fine of up to GTQ
Guatemalan quetzal
The quetzal is the currency of Guatemala. It is named after the national bird of Guatemala, the Resplendent Quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 cents, called centavos in standard Spanish or lenes in Guatemalan slang...
50,000. Attempts to censor Anleu's message backfired, because of internet phenomenon called the Streisand effect
Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
. A Guatemalan appeals court ruled on 10 July 2009 that the case lacked merit. Some US$7,000 was spent on Anleu's legal fees, half contributed by Twitter users by Paypal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
.
United Nations investigation
By September 12, 2009, Guatemalan police arrested a total of nine men, among them two active policemen, two former policemen and an ex-soldier and three other gang members, who were charged with Rosenberg's killing.In January 2010, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala
The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala is an international body charged with investigating and prosecuting serious crime in Guatemala...
(CICIG), a commission in charge of recommending governmental change backed by the UN and the Guatemalan government, announced the results of its own investigation, concluding that Rosenberg had arranged his own death. He allegedly asked two cousins of his ex-wife to arrange the assassination of a man he claimed was blackmailing him. However, the target was, according to the CICIG, himself. The cousins supposedly contracted eleven guns-for-hire
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
, most of whom were former or current police officers and one ex-military.
Rosenberg supposedly used an anonymous cell phone to call his personal cell phone number, creating the appearance of death threats and to call the hit men on the morning of his death. Investigators traced the phone to his driver from a sales tax receipt.
The CICIG commission said Rosenberg had been depressed over the murder of the Musas, and especially of Marjorie Musa, with whom he had had a relationship. According to the CICIG, he was convinced the government had killed Marjorie, but lacked the evidence required to pursue the matter in court. They concluded from this that his death therefore was simply a bizarre suicide. In light of the discovery, Vice-President Rafael Espada (who Rosenberg had called on to replace President Colom) denied having any contact with Rosenberg or anyone close to him before the murder. More recent information about the Musas' murder indicated that Khalil Musa had finally declined the board of directors nomination, and that a more likely suspect for his murder than government officials was "a criminal network" from whom he had purchased "contraband for his textile factory". Several of the people arrested for the killing of Rodrigo Rosenberg were also arrested on 22 September 2010 for participating in the murder of the Musas, including one of the men who was freed for testifying against the Valdés brothers, Mario Paz Mejía. Paz Mejía's brother Wilfredo Antonio Paz Mejía was also implicated in their murder.
Conflicting accounts
Not everyone agrees with Carlos Castresana's conclusion that Rodrigo Rosenberg killed himself.Mario Paz Mejía, a policeman with connections in high places in the Guatemalan Government, was one of the people captured and originally accused of the murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg in October of 2009, six months after the murder. His version that José and Francisco Valdés Pais, relatives of Rosenberg’s ex-wife, were the masterminds in Rosenberg’s murder was seconded months later by the rest of the members of the band involved in the operation that ended in Rosenberg’s killing. Paz Mejía was eventually freed for collaborating with the authorities.
According to Lucas Josué Santiago López, one of the other members who had no previous record, Paz Mejía threatened and at the same time offered money for Lucas’ family, to force him to say that he, Lucas Santiago, had done the shooting. Lucas Santiago’s testimony in court about Paz Mejía’s role in the killing, the threats and bribery were ignored and the original sentence increased for not collaborating.
Paz Mejía was freed, in spite of Castresana’s guarantee during the presentation that no one would go free, that the judge would only reduce his sentence, and he remained free until evidence of his participation in the killing of Rodrigo Rosenberg’s clients, Khalil and Marjorie Musa, could no longer be denied. Interestingly, Lucas Santiago is once again the alleged hit man in the murder of the Musas.
Months before Carlos Castresana publicly hypothesized that Rosenberg had killed himself, Ovidio Batz Tax, another self-declared witness, was given money to say that people in the opposition party had Rodrigo Rosenberg killed. Journalists were taken in the first lady’s, Sandra Torres’, helicopter by Salvador Gandara, the minister of Gobernación, the state ministry in charge of security matters, to hear the witness make his declaration. Sandra Torres, along with her husband, the President of Guatemala, was one of the people accused in Rosenberg’s video. The minister was seen paying the witness and the journalists.
Another alleged connection between the killers and José and Francisco Valdés came from a number in the memory of one or more of the phones confiscated from the intermediary of the group, Jesús Manuel Cardona Medina, alias Memín, cousin to one of the band members. The number corresponded to a cell phone which belonged to the company owned by the Valdés brothers. The phone was used by Nelson Wilfredo Santos Estrada, the Valdés’ chief of Security. Nelson Santos has never appeared to testify.
A year and a half after Castresana’s public conclusions, the cousins themselves are in jail, having been found guilty of "complicity" in the killing of Rosenberg. The main link between them and the killers is the testimony of ten of the members of the band. All ten of them, unanimously “…confirmed for us that the only people implicated are the Valdés brothers, and no one else, no minister, no chief of police, and no official.” This is the same band that Castresana declared to have had a history of murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and extortion.
The next linkage involves a check sent by the cousin of one of the men accused by Rosenberg in his famous video. A check for US$40,000 was sent by Luis Alejos, cousin to Gustavo Alejos, the president's private secretary, and brother of the general secretary of the party in power. It arrived in Rodrigo Rosenberg’s office three days after he was killed. Rosenberg’s secretary testified she had instructions from Rosenberg to deliver the check to his ex-wife’s cousin, Francisco Valdés. The check didn’t have either Rosenberg's or Valdés' name on it, but was, according to Carlos Castresana, the payment for the killing, three days after the murder. The check itself was never presented as evidence.
Eventually, the band members, several of them ex-policemen, testified one by one that they had been paid Q
Guatemalan quetzal
The quetzal is the currency of Guatemala. It is named after the national bird of Guatemala, the Resplendent Quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 cents, called centavos in standard Spanish or lenes in Guatemalan slang...
300,000, the equivalent in dollars to the check supposedly sent by Luis Alejos. One exception was the only alleged intermediary in custody, Jesus Manuel Cardona Medina, who refused to admit for a long time that they had been paid more than Q50,000. This is the same man who refused to “ask for forgiveness” for the killing because he felt that eliminating an extortionist was a "humanitarian gesture." For both cases of intransigence, he was threatened with having his status as collaborator removed. Unlike Paz Mejía, the man who pulled the trigger in this operation, Cardona Medina was found guilty and never freed from jail, although he did receive a reduction in his prison term.
The man who sent the check was head of the Ministry of Communications of Guatemala.
The first direct association between Rosenberg and his killers is testimony by alleged experts
in telecommunications who gave evidence that Rosenberg used the cell phone that
was used to make the threats to his personal number. The cell phone the threats
originated from was never found, even though Rosenberg supposedly used it minutes
before his murder, but the owner of the phone was found, Rodrigo Rosenberg’s
bodyguard, Luis López Florián.
Luis López Florián was Rodrigo Rosenberg’s man Friday. He drove for him, was his
bodyguard and was even front man for some of his businesses, such as Landosa Digital, S.A. The store receipt had his name on it; he was recorded on video in the place and time the phone was purchased. He eventually said he bought a second phone, at a different place, which did not have a record of his name and which he said he thought he had delivered to the Valdés brothers. This second phone operated in the vicinity of Rosenberg when first purchased and then later in the environs of the intermediary, Cardona Medina. This phone was purportedly delivered to Cardona through the chief of Security of the Valdés', one of the men who was never been found. It was not stated by Castresana whether the phone was ever found among Cardona Medina's possessions, only that it operated in his vicinity.
“Entries” were made into Rosenberg’s accounting records for the purchase of the phones;
exactly by whom the entries were made is not made clear by Castresana’s presentation,
only implied by the word secretariat. The customer receipts were never publicly
presented as evidence, only the store receipts were, and only one of them with López's name on it. Aside from López Florián, there were over 300 policemen involved
in the case, close to a dozen officials from the Guatemalan Public Ministry, and several
CICIG investigators any of whom, at one time or another, could have had access to the records, especially before the suicide theory was settled on, nine months after the murder.
“On 8 September 2009, the Fiscalía listened to a conversation in which Santos Divas was warned by another member of the band that López had made a document telling about the Rosenberg crime and left it with a general in the Army who would make it public if anything happened to him.” Which Lopez is not specified in the Prensa Libre article titled: Agendas Disclose Contact Between Killers and Police. (Agendas delatan contacto de sicarios con policías. 24/05/10.) Willian [sic] Gilberto Santos Divas was in the car with Mario Paz Mejía during the operation.
Rodrigo Rosenberg spoke by cell phone with López Florián two minutes before he left his apartment that fateful morning, and told him he was going out for a bike ride. It is at this time that the killers received information about their target, "el venado," who was slaughtered ten minutes later. Castresana alleged, but gave no proof other than the telecommunications expert's testimony on the cell-phone's supposed location on that
morning, that this information was given by Rosenberg himself. The phone itself was never presented as evidence. López Florián called Rodrigo’s son while close to the scene of the crime, shortly after the murder, to inform him of his father's death.
Approximately half an hour before Rosenberg rode away from his apartment to his death, a person walking some dogs saw a man wearing a suit sitting on the curb where Rosenberg was soon killed. The witness called and reported this fact to the police within minutes of the sighting, but the report was ignored; it never came out in the investigation.
The CICIG, however, was at the scene of the crime, together with the vice-minister of Gobernación very shortly after Rosenberg's death, while his body still lay in situ. One of the top ministers in the government and a United Nations international commission investigating, on a Sunday morning, what should not have been anything other than one of fifteen ordinary murders taking place daily in Guatemala. The video that made it national and international news would not come out until the next day.
External links
- English translation of Rosenberg Marzano's complete statement
- The Final Testament of Rodrigo Rosenberg World Policy InstituteWorld Policy InstituteThe World Policy Institute, a non-partisan policy institute which claims to develop policies that require a progressive ideology. WPI focuses on cooperative policies in order to achieve : an inclusive and sustainable global market economy, engaged global civic participation and effective...
- CICIG Report on killing Grann]]|first=David GrannDavid|title=A Murder Foretold: Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy|url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all|publisher=The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
|accessdate=29 March 2011|date=4 April 2011}}