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ericcorriel
Who killed Rodrigo Rosenberg? Favorite
In May of 2009 lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg was murdered in Guatemla City. A video was released of Rosenberg directed to the Guatemalan public. If you are watching this, he said, I have been murdered by the president Alvaro Colom. The video caused an uproar and sparked protests throughout the city.
Rosenberg argued that the president had reasons to murder him. Rosenberg claimed that his clients, Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie were murdered becuause Musa knew about a money laundering scam that directly implicated the president. Rosenberg pleaded to his audience: stand up to your violent, corrupt government and see it for what it is.
A UN investigation resulted in a melodramatic twist: the investigators claimed that Rosenberg hired the hitman to kill him in a bizarre suicide. According to investigstors, Rosenberg was experiencing depression over Marjorie Musa's death.
While the Rosenberg case was deemed a suicide, many unanswerable questions remain nonetheless: was Rosenberg lying about everything? Was the Musa's death political? Most importantly, the video personalized and created spectacle of Guatemala's deeply flawed political system and in the very least drew people together in dialogue and action.
The video remains.. It is at once an artifact of a frustrating and complex story and a social commentary that is very much still alive. Rosenberg might have framed his own death,, but the reaction of the public was real--civilians sparked into action. Civilians who were and are frustrated with the political corruption, violence, and general inefficiency of government.
