A Guatemalan man who was murdered and released a youtube vidoe after his death accusing the president has been found to have arranged the whole thing himself - including his murder! WTF! It's like, well, a film innit? The film rights for this story are gonna get mucho cash. Still, mad stuff. The whole article is much longer, I just got the main bits here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ja … -rosenberg
The truth about Guatemala's YouTube murder
Rodrigo Rosenberg lived alone in an apartment in Guatemala City's trendy Districto 14, a refuge for diplomats and heirs to 19th-century fortunes. Miserable and divorced, the balding 47-year-old lawyer was estranged from his children, who lived in Mexico with his ex-wife. Rosenberg's bodyguard was the closest thing to a roommate, his abandoned bicycle on the terrace the closest thing to exercise.
On 10 May last year, he left his home at 8am. Security cameras would later show him mounting a bicycle and riding away, alone, on a two-lane, tree-lined street. The morning traffic was minimal as the assassins moved in. More camera footage shows a souped-up Mazda shadowing Rosenberg. The killing is over in seconds. The Mazda speeds away, and Rosenberg bleeds to death on the street. The Harvard-educated lawyer had been shot three times in the head.
But at the end of Rosenberg's funeral the following day, Luis Mendizábal, a close friend, handed out a video to mourners. It was a filmed statement by Rosenberg made just four days earlier. The video, a simple amateur recording, showed Rosenberg behind a desk in a plain blue blazer and tie. But his message sent reverberations through the country's political landscape.
"If you are listening to this," said the dead man, "it's because I was murdered by President Alvaro Colom, with the help of [the president's private secretary] Gustavo Alejos and [businessman] Gregorio Valdez."
...
In the eight months since the killing, amid all the feverish speculation endemic to Guatemalan life, two favoured scenarios emerged: Rosenberg was murdered either because he got too close to dirty deals himself, or by rightwing activists in a plot to frame President Colom. The truth, however, which emerged only this week, is even more bizarre and shocking. Rosenberg planned his own suicide, then tried to pin it on the president.
"Nobody else but him is responsible for his own death," Carlos Castresana, leader of the UN's investigation into the killing, told a stunned press conference in Guatemala City on Tuesday. "He planned it all."
Rosenberg's entire script, said Castresana, was fiction – a twisted plot hatched by the lawyer to upend Colom's presidency. It was apparently Rosenberg himself who asked distant relatives of his ex-wife for help. "These are very close friends, to whom he says: 'I have a swindler who is threatening me, and I want him dead.' They receive the mission and look for someone capable of doing it."
Rosenberg also negotiated the specifics of the hit, and even provided the mobile phones used to negotiate the fee, which was set at 300,000 Quetzal [£22,000]. Once the execution was arranged, Rosenberg had one last detail to sort – he told his driver to fix up his long-abandoned bicycle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ja … -rosenberg
The truth about Guatemala's YouTube murder
Rodrigo Rosenberg lived alone in an apartment in Guatemala City's trendy Districto 14, a refuge for diplomats and heirs to 19th-century fortunes. Miserable and divorced, the balding 47-year-old lawyer was estranged from his children, who lived in Mexico with his ex-wife. Rosenberg's bodyguard was the closest thing to a roommate, his abandoned bicycle on the terrace the closest thing to exercise.
On 10 May last year, he left his home at 8am. Security cameras would later show him mounting a bicycle and riding away, alone, on a two-lane, tree-lined street. The morning traffic was minimal as the assassins moved in. More camera footage shows a souped-up Mazda shadowing Rosenberg. The killing is over in seconds. The Mazda speeds away, and Rosenberg bleeds to death on the street. The Harvard-educated lawyer had been shot three times in the head.
But at the end of Rosenberg's funeral the following day, Luis Mendizábal, a close friend, handed out a video to mourners. It was a filmed statement by Rosenberg made just four days earlier. The video, a simple amateur recording, showed Rosenberg behind a desk in a plain blue blazer and tie. But his message sent reverberations through the country's political landscape.
"If you are listening to this," said the dead man, "it's because I was murdered by President Alvaro Colom, with the help of [the president's private secretary] Gustavo Alejos and [businessman] Gregorio Valdez."
...
In the eight months since the killing, amid all the feverish speculation endemic to Guatemalan life, two favoured scenarios emerged: Rosenberg was murdered either because he got too close to dirty deals himself, or by rightwing activists in a plot to frame President Colom. The truth, however, which emerged only this week, is even more bizarre and shocking. Rosenberg planned his own suicide, then tried to pin it on the president.
"Nobody else but him is responsible for his own death," Carlos Castresana, leader of the UN's investigation into the killing, told a stunned press conference in Guatemala City on Tuesday. "He planned it all."
Rosenberg's entire script, said Castresana, was fiction – a twisted plot hatched by the lawyer to upend Colom's presidency. It was apparently Rosenberg himself who asked distant relatives of his ex-wife for help. "These are very close friends, to whom he says: 'I have a swindler who is threatening me, and I want him dead.' They receive the mission and look for someone capable of doing it."
Rosenberg also negotiated the specifics of the hit, and even provided the mobile phones used to negotiate the fee, which was set at 300,000 Quetzal [£22,000]. Once the execution was arranged, Rosenberg had one last detail to sort – he told his driver to fix up his long-abandoned bicycle.