Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano (November 28, 1960 – May 10, 2009) was a Guatemalan attorney. Before his death, Rosenberg recorded a video message saying if he were murdered, Álvaro Colom Caballeros, President of Guatemala, Gustavo Alejos, Sandra Torres de Colom, and Gregorio Valdés would have been directly responsible. His subsequent killing caused a national uproar. After an investigation by a United Nations commission, officials declared that Rosenberg had arranged his own death and had contacted cousins of his former wife, Francisco José Ramón Valdés Paiz and José Estuardo Valdés Paiz, to hire a hitman.Guatemalan leader cleared of murder CSMonitor
Carlos Castresana, the head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), who headed the investigation at that time, emphasized that this was a provisional hypothesis. The cousins accused were sent to jail for complicity in a hearing behind closed doors, where they remained without a trial for more than two years.
Further investigation by the same commission has turned up links between the men who shot Rosenberg and those who killed Marjorie and Khalil Musa.
Two of the killers who took part in both killings and had originally changed their testimony to accuse the Valdés Paiz brothers have accused the Public Ministry of Guatemala and the United Nations Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala of pressuring them to accuse the Valdés Paiz brothers.
Career Rosenberg graduated with honors from Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala City. He earned a Master of Arts degree in International Law and Comparative Law from the University of Cambridge, St Edmund's College 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).
The killing
Rosenberg was shot dead on May 10, 2009, while cycling in Guatemala City. He was approached by an assassin who came down a grass bank 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.
The video seen around the world
In an 18-minute videotape recorded prior to his death, Marzano 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,
... 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.
Political crisis The airing of the video at Rosenberg's funeral, then uploaded to YouTube and broadcast on national television, precipitated a political crisis in Guatemala. Protesters demonstrated in Guatemala City's Central Plaza, and opponents urged president Colom to step down from office. 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 GTQ50,000. Attempts to censor Anleu's message backfired, because of 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. Vice president Espada filed a criminal complaint against journalist, Marta Yolanda Díaz-Durán. In August, 2010, the Constitutional Court rejected the vice president's complaint on the grounds that the columnist was "protected by the right to freedom of thought".
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 (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. It concluded that he 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 are said to have contracted eleven guns-for-hire, most of whom were former or current police officers and one ex-military. Rosenberg was said to have 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.
This key piece of evidence was used to convince the Guatemalan populace and the world that Rodrigo Rosenberg had himself killed. The allegation was that he himself contacted the killers via cellphone to give them instructions for the killing. This allegation was based on information that placed the calls made to the killers within Rodrigo Rosenberg's apartment.
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.The Guatemalan Who Ordered His Own Murder Time Magazine.Guatemala: Investigation Reveals Rosenberg Masterminded His Own Murder Global Voices Online.
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 the CICIG's conclusion that Rodrigo Rosenberg killed himself, and that the Valdés Paiz brothers had anything to do with it. The following evidence contradicts or weakens some of the CICIG's main points, or brings up new questions.
Mario Paz Mejia - hitman confesses 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 2009, six months after the murder. 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. Lucas Santiago was once again the alleged hit man in the murder of the Musas.
False leads in the investigation 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.
The Valdés Paiz brothers - falsely accused 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 an alleged 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.