Guatemala: Protests For Assassinated Lawyer (set to expose Guatemalan/US narco corruption)

[villager]

Source: BoingBoing

Guatemala: Protests for Assasinated Lawyer Streamed Live from Laptops in the Streets

Posted by Xeni Jardin,

Protests are taking place today in Guatemala City to demand justice for an attorney who was assassinated on Sunday, and who claimed in a posthumously released YouTube video taped before his death that if he were to die, it would be at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.

Quick background: The slain attorney, Rodrigo Rosenberg represented a man who refused to take an assigment by Guatemala's president to serve on the board of a bank widely known as a money laundering hub and a shelter for narcotrafficking spoils. This whistleblower client of Rosenberg, Khalil Musa, was assassinated in March. Las Sunday, after reportedly refusing to participate in the corruption and the coverup, Rosenberg was assasinated, too.

Protesters are at the presidential palace today. At least one citizen media activist is streaming the action on Ustream.tv, as I type, though the stream is going on and off as police clusters form. Twitter users are marking conversations about today's protests, and about the case in general, with the hashtag #escandalogt. To take this sort of public action in Guatemala is not something one does lightly, and the young people at the center of these protests are placing their lives at risk.

I'm seeing some Guatemalan Twitterers spreading word that "chicken bus" drivers will gather tomorrow in the capital for another round of protests. Why? These same transportistas have long been the target of ongoing, ever-escalating assasinations and extortion from narco gangs. The corruption Rosenberg and Musa attempted to expose fuels this violence.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/12/guatemala-protests-f.html

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Note that this story also gets into the narco money-laundering "service" provided by banks, as well...

[EFerrari]

1. You mean, like Stanford's bank? You bet!

Stanford who "worked" with DEA? This article says he gave them information. I'm sure he "gave" them more than that:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stanford-was-informant-for-us-antidrug-agents-1682649.html

/ack! typos!

[villager]

3. Thanks, EFerrari -- and go Giants!

:thumbsup:

[flyarm]

8. You bet is right!!!!!!!..but we shouldn't worry there is a new sherriff right??

I read that alot of our banks kept flowing long before the collapse..with the huge influx of drug money..

hmmmmmm..i wonder what route those Afgan record crop of poppies will take >>Guatamala,Costa Rica, Mexico or Honduras...

Do read " Barry and the Boys" , by Daniel Hopsicker..I can't suggest it enough!!

here also from the BBC..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8029494.stm

Stanford drug informer role claim
By John Sweeney
BBC Panorama reporter


snip;

Sources told Panorama that if he was a paid anti-drug agency informer, that could explain why a 2006 probe into his financial dealings was quietly dropped.

snip;
Secret documents seen by Panorama show both governments knew in 1990 that the Texan was a former bankrupt and his first bank was suspected of involvement with Latin American money-launderers.

In 1999, both the British and the Americans were aware of the facts surrounding a cheque for $3.1m (£2.05m) that Sir Allen paid to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

It was drug money originally paid in to Stanford International Bank by agents acting for a feared Mexican drug lord known as the 'Lord of the Heavens'.

The cheque was proof that Stanford International Bank had been used to launder Mexican drug money - whether or not Sir Allen knew it at the time.

[ThirdWorldJohn]

2. The English Transcript video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKg2WZKRB7w

[villager]

7. Thanks, ThirdWorldJohn!

n/t

[Uncle Joe]

4. Another victim from the insanity known as the "War on Drugs."

Thanks for the thread, villager.

[Bacchus39]

5. chicken bus drivers the target of narcos??? how so??

the ayudantes are the ones holding the cash.

[Duval]

6. Read with sadness.

Thank you, villager. My husband is from Guatemala, I have visited several times with him, and I love the people I met in such a beautiful country.

[struggle4progress]

9. I don't know jack$#!t about Guatemalan politics, but this doesn't seem to smell right

I have no idea whether, for example, Colomb is merely a tool of CACIF, as this article claims: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/14240

There's an alleged transcript -- I can't vouch for it -- in the comments here: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/11/guatemala-in-youtube.html

Here's what bothers me: if that transcript is correct, a lawyer sat down a week or so before his murder and denounced his murders -- without providing the expected evidence. The tone seems calculated to support a political rather than judicial result -- but, why? The guy was a lawyer: why didn't he put together the evidence? It smells like somebody said, Look, Rodrigo, you fucked up and you have a choice: you can tape this, and a few days later you'll be dead but we'll look after your family or else :shrug: well, you'll lose your loved ones first but then you'll die anyway

[Bacchus39]

10. he was defending a guy who refused to take an appointment from the President

I don't understand your post. He couldn't provide evidence because he wasn't murdered yet. I suspect rather emphatic death threats.

and what guarantee does he have that his family will be taken care of? a hoax would seem more likely if you are into conspiracies.

[struggle4progress]

12. He couldn't provide evidence about all the accusations he made because he wasn't dead yet?

It's your view that Rodrigo Rosenberg couldn't obtain evidence about the Musa murders until after he himself died? But if he didn't have such evidence, why make the accusations?

[AlphaCentauri]

11. What about army money-laundering?

Guatemalan Human Rights activists face death threats again

The threatening cell phone text messages say:
"You have one hour, this is the last warning.
Stop investigating the declassified army files.
We will kill your children and then it is your turn."

"I am in front of your house, not on the street. Your boss is a guerilla shit. ...you call yourselves convergence of human rights.
I know how everything works, better than anyone.
They will not be able to catch me.
You will be killed first and all these shit human rights people.
You have a curriculum; very well, escape if you can, alone, if you love your children and your people.
Tell your boss not to be a mule...
If you all do not stop now, I will kill you and your family, and everybody will think you did it. Laughing."



http://www.guatemala-times.com/news/guatemala/1090-guatemalan-human-rights-activists-face-death-threats-again.html