Not everyone agrees with the CICIG's conclusion that Rodrigo Rosenberg killed himself, and that the Valdés Paiz brothers had anything to do with it. The following evidence contradicts or weakens some of the CICIG's main points, or brings up new questions.
Mario Paz Mejia - hitman confesses Mario Paz Mejía, a policeman with connections in high places in the Guatemalan Government, was one of the people captured and originally accused of the murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg in October 2009, six months after the murder. Paz Mejía was eventually freed for collaborating with the authorities. Paz Mejía was freed, in spite of Castresana's guarantee during the presentation that no one would go free, that the judge would only reduce his sentence, and he remained free until evidence of his participation in the killing of Rodrigo Rosenberg's clients, Khalil and Marjorie Musa, could no longer be denied. Lucas Santiago was once again the alleged hit man in the murder of the Musas. Journalists were taken in the first lady's, Sandra Torres', helicopter by Salvador Gandara, the minister of Gobernación, the state ministry in charge of security matters, to hear the witness make his declaration. Sandra Torres, along with her husband, the President of Guatemala, was one of the people accused in Rosenberg's video. The minister was seen paying the witness and the journalists. Two years after Castresana's public conclusions, the cousins themselves are in jail, having been accused of "complicity" in the killing of Rosenberg.
The Alejos brothers - people with power The next linkage involves a check sent by the cousin of one of the men accused by Rosenberg in his famous video. A check for
US$40,000 was sent by Luis Alejos, cousin to Gustavo Alejos, the president's private secretary, and brother of the general secretary of the party in power. It arrived in Rodrigo Rosenberg's office three days after he was killed. Rosenberg's secretary testified she had instructions from Rosenberg to deliver the check to his ex-wife's cousin, Francisco Valdés. The check didn't have either Rosenberg's or Valdés' name on it, but was, according to Carlos Castresana, the payment for the killing, three days after the murder. The check itself was never presented as evidence. This is the same man who refused to "ask for forgiveness" for the killing because he felt that eliminating an extortionist was a "humanitarian gesture." For both cases of intransigence, he was threatened with having his status as collaborator removed. Unlike Paz Mejía, the man who pulled the trigger in this operation, Cardona Medina was found guilty and never freed from jail, although he did receive a reduction in his prison term.
Minister of Communications of the Government of Alvaro Colom The man who sent the check, Luis Alejos, was head of the Ministry of Communications of Guatemala. The first direct association between Rosenberg and his killers is testimony by alleged experts in telecommunications who gave evidence that Rosenberg used the cell phone that was used to make the threats to his personal number. The cell phone the threats originated from was never found, even though Rosenberg supposedly used it minutes before his murder, but the owner of the phone was found, Rodrigo Rosenberg's bodyguard, Luis López Florián. The store receipt had his name on it; he was recorded on video in the place and time the phone was purchased. He eventually said he bought a second phone, at a different place, which did not have a record of his name and which he said he thought he had delivered to the Valdés brothers. This second phone operated in the vicinity of Rosenberg when first purchased and then later in the environs of the intermediary, Cardona Medina. This phone was purportedly delivered to Cardona through the chief of Security of the Valdés', one of the men who was never found. It was not stated by Castresana whether the phone was ever found among Cardona Medina's possessions, only that it operated in his vicinity. Rodrigo Rosenberg spoke by cell phone with López Florián two minutes before he left his apartment that fateful morning, and told him he was going out for a bike ride. It is at this time that the killers received information about their target, "el venado," who was slaughtered ten minutes later. Castresana alleged, but gave no proof other than the telecommunications expert's testimony on the cell-phone's supposed location on that morning, that this information was given by Rosenberg himself. The phone itself was never presented as evidence. very shortly after Rosenberg's death, while his body still lay
in situ. The video that made it national and international news would not come out until the next day.
In charge of the scene of the crime Claudia Muñoz, mother of the girlfriend of the Presidential Spokesman, Fernando Barillas was initially in charge of the case. She had a meeting with Gustavo Alejos in the President's house on the day Rosenberg's video came out. Muñóz's son in law sued her for harassment and death threats.
Family declares response to the handling of the case On 10 August 2011, his son, Eduardo Rosenberg Paiz, made the following comment: "We don't care about the final conclusions that a failed system of justice makes about his death," denying that his father's purpose had been to overthrow a particular government, but to "turn our Republic into a State of
Rule of Law, where governors and governed obey the law and where no crime can remain unpunished."
One band of killers - two related murders In September, 2010, María Encarnación Mejia, interim attorney general for the CICIG, declared that seven of the 11 people who participated in the murder of Marjorie and Khalil Musa were involved in the killing of Rodrigo Rosenberg. once again changed his testimony in the Rosenberg case, absolving the Valdés Paiz brothers from involvement in Rosenberg's murder. He declared: "The Paiz brothers don't have anything to do with this. I never saw them." He stated that the public prosecutor, Rubén Herrera, made all kinds of offers in order for him to declare against the Valdés Paiz brothers, as well as having been shown two photographs from the papers in order to involve them in the crime. César Calderón, the defense lawyer, asked Paz Mejía what had been offered by the prosecutors, and he responded that security and Q50,000. Francisco Capuano, another of the defense lawyers, asked the witness who else had pressured him to testify against the Valdés Paiz brothers in 2010. Instead of answering, he looked around and pointed to Luis Orozco, an official of the CICIG, the United Nations International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. In March 2011, de León was accused of
libel by the CICIG while she was defending people who questioned the CICIG's honorability in the Rosenberg case. ==References==