The Death of Rodrigo Rosenberg

An absolutely enthralling story from the New Yorker's David Grann. The tale is so fantastical it is incredible that it is based in "fact" and indeed "true." I use quotations because even after what seems to be legitimate detective work, one is still left wondering if all or even most of the layers were peeled back and divulged in their entirety. Truly a great story. I will not reveal the ending, as you will have to read through to find out for yourself who the suspected culprits are in ending the lives of Rodrigo Rosenberg, Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie, but I will say it is a must read. 


“Guatemala is a good place to commit a murder, because you will almost certainly get away with it,” a U.N. official has said.


An excerpt from:
A Murder Foretold
Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy.
by David Grann


Rodrigo Rosenberg knew that he was about to die. It wasn’t because he was approaching old age—he was only forty-eight. Nor had he been diagnosed with a fatal illness; an avid bike rider, he was in perfect health. Rather, Rosenberg, a highly respected corporate attorney in Guatemala, was certain that he was going to be assassinated.

Before he began, in the spring of 2009, to prophesy his own murder, there was little to suggest that he might meet a violent end. Rosenberg, who had four children, was an affectionate father. The head of his own flourishing practice, he had a reputation as an indefatigable and charismatic lawyer who had a gift for leading other people where he wanted them to go. He was lithe and handsome, though his shiny black hair had fallen out on top, leaving an immaculate ring on the sides. Words were his way of ordering the jostle of life. He spoke in eloquent bursts, using his voice like an instrument, his hands and eyebrows rising and falling to accentuate each note. (It didn’t matter if he was advocating the virtues of the Guatemalan constitution or of his favorite band, Santana.) Ferociously intelligent, he had earned master’s degrees in law from both Harvard University and Cambridge University...


...And, according to Rosenberg, it was a case involving one of these clients, Khalil Musa, that had placed his life in jeopardy. A Lebanese immigrant, Musa had risen from poverty to great wealth, manufacturing textiles and producing coffee. Stern, traditional, and hardworking, he liked to recite the inspirational poetry of Khalil Gibran, and was admired as one of the few magnates in Guatemala who refused to plunder the state or make payoffs for favorable deals. At seventy-six, he suffered from vertigo, and he increasingly relied on the younger of his two daughters, Marjorie, to help him manage his business. Marjorie, who was forty-two, was married with two children, and she had an easy ebullience that infused her simple features with beauty. She had mastered the intricacies of finishing fabrics, and she had always been—as her sister, Aziza, acknowledges, without rancor—their father’s favorite...

...After Rosenberg heard that the Musas had been shot, he rushed to the scene. Luis Mendizábal, a longtime friend and client of Rosenberg’s, told me, “I asked him to come and pick me up, so we could go to the place together. He said, ‘No, no, no. I’m not going to lose any time. I’m going directly.’ So he went. He couldn’t believe it. Then he came back over here, and cried, easily, for two hours.” His oldest son, Eduardo, who was twenty-four, told me that it was only the second time he had seen his father break down, the first being when Rosenberg revealed that he was separating from Eduardo’s mother. He seemed “completely destroyed” by the Musas’ deaths, Eduardo recalled.


Though the crime was horrific, Rosenberg’s deeply emotional reaction was surprising. Musa was not a big client or someone he knew that well. Then Rosenberg told his son a secret: for more than a year, he and Marjorie had been having an affair.


They had planned to marry, but had not wanted to disclose their relationship until Marjorie got a divorce. Almost every day, they had exchanged text messages. On March 3, 2009, five weeks before the shooting, Marjorie wrote to Rosenberg, “I love you like I’ve never loved before. And, yes, I will marry you.” A few days later, she said, “Good night my love, my prince, my whole life. You don’t know how much I love you, how much I adore you, and how much I need you. You are so tender with me. And you’re the sweetest man I know.” She added, “I’m dying to live the rest of my life at your side.” He called her “my Marjorie de Rosenberg” and told her that she gave him “the strength to be a better man” and that they were “living an incredible love story.” Hours before she was killed, he ended a message with the words “Your prince forever.”


In tears, Rosenberg told his son, “They killed her! They killed her!” He told Mendizábal the same thing, repeating the words over and over...


...In President Colom’s war room, Roberto Izurieta, the strategist, believed that he, too, had found threads of what one member of the government called a “finely woven conspiracy.” Izurieta had always thought that Colom could not be behind the murders of the Musas and Rosenberg, and that the killings had to be part of a plot to bring down the government. The idea was outlandish only to the innocent. As Don DeLillo has written, “A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.” Izurieta, who had lost ten pounds since the crisis began—and who had violated his ban on caffeine, which made him, by his own admission, “electric”—thought that the conspirators were finally being pulled from the shadows of Guatemalan politics..."


Click through to read The New Yorker article in its entirety.
From The New Yorker 


And here is Rodrigo Rosenberg:



Rodrigo Rosenberg's murder as reported originally by Time Magazine May 14th, 2009:

Nevertheless, Colom supporters have seized the conspiracy theory to defend the President. "We're here in support of our President and against these lies trying to bring him down," said Anita Lopez, 32, as she rallied in front of the presidential palace on Wednesday. Students of the left-leaning public university and indigenous Mayans joined her. Many said the government bused them to the city from the suburbs.

Steps away, thousands of protesters, including students from right-leaning private universities, marched in front of the presidential palace, carrying signs calling Colom an "assassin" and demanding his resignation. The competing protests are the most visible sign of a politically charged environment that has the potential to cause Colom to resign, Isaacs says. "This country has for so long been paralyzed by the pervasive violence and the potent mix of gangs and narcotraffickers," she says. "Now that paralysis has turned into rage. And if these demonstrations pick up momentum, they could have a snowball effect."

Organizers are planning to continue the demonstrations and anti-government activists are collecting signatures on a petition against Colom. Says Javier Ogarrio, a leader of the group opposed to the President: "We plan to keep the protests going and collect signatures until we put enough pressure on him."