Dead Guatemalan Lawyer Left Video Blaming President For His Death (VIDEO)

JUAN CARLOS LLORCA | Associated Press

GUATEMALA CITY - A lawyer slain by gunmen over the weekend appears in a video tape that emerged Monday alleging that if anything happened to him it would be at the behest of Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom.

Colom's spokesman, Fernando Barrillas, issued a statement saying the government "categorically rejects any accusations made in tapes and statements being distributed to some news media."

"This reveals the intention of creating a political crisis around a case that should be investigated and processed by the courts," the statement posted on the government's Web site said.

Lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg was shot to death by unidentified assailants while riding his bicycle Sunday, the newspaper El Periodico de Guatemala said.

In the video distributed to local media, Rosenberg says: "If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom with help from Gustavo Alejos," the president's private secretary.

Former interior minister Adela de Torrebiarte, who knew Rosenberg, said he was the man on the video.

The director of El Periodico, Juan Luis Font, said the accusation was distributed to media in audio format at Rosenberg's funeral and later in the video.

Rosenberg says on the tape that officials might want to kill him because he represented businessman Khalil Musa, who was killed along with his daughter Marjorie in March.

Rosenberg alleged those killings were in retaliation for Musa's refusal to engage in acts of corruption that Colom purportedly invited him to participate in.

(This version CORRECTS date of killing to March in last graf.)

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Comments

[Angrylittleburrito]

10:43 AM on 05/15/2009

the "journalist" mentioned in the article is rumored to be connected to the military/right-wing. they have been violently wreaking havoc in Guatemala attempting to destroy Colom's government since he came to office. first with the bus driver assassinations halting the nation's transportation infrastructure and now this. yes, this government is more than likely seriously corrupt, they all are sadly. These peripheral players are never looked into by the lazy mainstream media and need to be so everyone can see that the military is still the one pulling all of the strings.

[PSM42]

08:34 AM on 05/14/2009

Some interesting comments from Guatemalans at Information Clearing House -

Dead Man Talking - Guatemala President Accused Over Murder - http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22604.htm

[mofmars333]

03:46 PM on 05/13/2009

Amen!

[davidwayneosedach]

01:51 PM on 05/13/2009

Little good the video did for him.

[Marisa Whitsell]

11:30 AM on 05/13/2009

Chilling! May this mans life and death mark a change in Guatemala! May the people of Guatemala join forces to end this evil reign! AMEN

[roman666]

12:15 AM on 05/14/2009

I sternly believe that the Guatemalans should take grounds and seek justice for this man......if his accusations are authentic he deserves the decency of justice to these assasins......it is a shame that these events of tyranny be occuring at this point in time in a country that has suffered so much reforms and civil upheavals.......justice should prevail.....