A 47-year-old Harvard graduate orchestrated his own death in a shooting in Guatemala City in a bid to blame President Alvaro Colom for his murder.
Rodrigo Rosenberg recorded a 20 minute video in which he said: “If you are watching this message, it is because I have been murdered by Alvaro Colom.”
He claimed that the government was involved in corruption and that any attack on him would be an attempt to cover it up. Meanwhile, he arranged for relatives to pay a hitman to kill a man he claimed was blackmailing him.
He purchased two mobile phones – one to communicate with the hitman and the other to deliver threatening messages to himself. His family didn’t know he was the intended victim of his own plot and paid $40,000 for the hit. Police are keen to interview them.
Unsurprisingly, Rosenberg is described as having ‘personal problems’ stemming from a belief that the government had killed two of his close friends.
After his death, the video was distributed to the media and triggered anti-government protests and calls for the president’s resignation.
Carlos Castresana, in charge of the investigation into the affair, said that blaming the President for his death was intended to ‘open up a Pandora’s box that would result in regime change.’
“Rosenberg chose to sacrifice his life in exchange for a change in the country, and that’s what he did. There can be no other explanation.”
