"Good afternoon, if you are watching this, it is sadly because I have been assassinated

by the president of Guatemala."

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Amazing story out of Guatemala that is spreading like wildfire on the Internet.



Rodrigo Rosenberg

An attorney named Rodrigo Rosenberg was shot to death on Sunday while riding a bicycle in an exclusive sector of Guatemala City. He left behind a video taken last Wednesday in which he blames the president of Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, the president's wife Sandra, the president's private secretary and others for his assassination.

The reason Rosenberg cites in the video is that he was representing a prominent businessman, Khalil Musa, who had refused to partcipate in a banking/money-laundering scam involving the president, his wife and private secretary.

Khalil Musa and his teen daughter, Majorie Musa, were shot to death two weeks ago.

This could lead to Colom being ousted from the presidency. Colom today denied any involvement and said it was an attempt to destablize the goverment (the usual excuse).


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You can see video on this link and read the background. They are in Spanish.

http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2009/mayo/12/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090512/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_guatemala_lawyer_killed

the people are calling the president "asesino, asesino, asesino" and "que renuncie (resign).

Note the people, they are the more europeanized guatemalans. No sign of the the indigenous people.

Read that the assassinated lawyer was educated at Harvard and in England. So it looks like he was a member of the upper crust in Guatemala City.

The government is scrambling frantically to find support but it could be too late. The assassinated lawyer in his video called on the vice president to step up and clean out the president's "den of thieves" and the corruption that pervades Colom's presidency.

Short video, 1:36 minutes http://www.vimeo.com/4618558

I am a little puzzled by your post though. While this was in Guatemala City where the population is mixed we don't know who organized this or what the context is. Yeah, I guess it would interesting to find out what the people of Xela think or the highlands think, but regardless, Colom is in deep mierda.

the people in that video although certainly culturally "ladino" don't look like this:

sounds like Colom's political survival may be in jeopardy. My initial reaction is that asking for a UN probe is a stalling tactic.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090512/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_guatemala_lawyer_killed;_ylt=Arl2DxGp1JB_pPcMY2WGty23IxIF

Guatemala asks for UN probe into lawyer killing

Associated Press Writer Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press Writer
GUATEMALA CITY – A slain man's videotaped and posthumously broadcast accusation that President Alvaro Colom president ordered his murder threw Guatemala into an uproar and prompted government calls Tuesday for a U.N. agency and the FBI to investigate the killing.

Colom vehemently denied the allegations made in a videotape left by lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who was shot to death by unidentified assailants while riding his bicycle Sunday. Opposition leaders and protesters called for Colom to step aside.

"If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom with help from Gustavo Alejos," the president's secretary, Rosenberg said in the video distributed at his funeral on Monday.

Rosenberg said on the tape that officials might want to kill him because he represented businessman Khalil Musa, who was slain in March. The lawyer alleged that Musa was killed because he refused to engage in acts of corruption that Colom purportedly invited him to participate in.

The Guatemala City newspaper Prensa Libre said the recording "has created the greatest political crisis for this democracy, because never before has a democratically elected president been accused of murder."

Television stations repeatedly broadcast the video and so many people watched it on Guatemalan Internet sites that some temporarily collapsed under the load.

Colom — center-leftist who took office in January pledging to fight poverty — went on national television to dismiss the accusations and demand an outside investigation.

He said his government has requested the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala to investigate "to clear up this matter." The U.N. commission was created in 2007 to clean up corruption in Guatemala.

Colom said he also talked to U.S. ambassador Stephen McFarland to ask the FBI to probe Rosenberg's slaying. The U.S. embassy did not confirm this request nor said if the FBI would participate in the investigation.

Otto Perez, secretary-general of the leading opposition faction, the Patriot Party, called on Colom to step aside during the investigation.

More than 5,300 people joined a Facebook group called "Guatemalans for the dismissal of Alvaro Colom."