Ten Arrested in Rosenberg Murder Case

S E C R E T GUATEMALA 000913

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/09/28
TAGS: PGOV PINR SNAR ASEC KCRM GT
SUBJECT: Ten Arrested in Rosenberg Murder Case

REF: GUATEMALA 734

CLASSIFIED BY: Drew G. Blakeney, Political and Economic Counselor,
State, P/E; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (S) Summary. Ten men, including three police officers, were
arrested as a result of a CICIG investigation into the May murder
of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg. The FBI is assisting with the
investigation. The men are currently being held together at
Guatemala City's Zone 18 prison, but CICIG is seeking their
transfer in order to isolate them and thereby facilitate
interrogations. CICIG has identified one of former Minister of
Government Salvador Gandara's bodyguards as the intermediary
between the gang that killed Rosenberg and the intellectual authors
of the crime. The arrests are an encouraging development in this
very high profile case. CICIG hopes to have identified and
apprehended the masterminds by year's end. End Summary.




2. (C) On September 11th, an FBI-assisted CICIG (International
Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala) investigation, based on
video surveillance and telephone intercepts, led to the arrests of
nine men for the May 10 murder of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg
(reftel). Group leader William Gilberto Santos Divas, arrested in
Villa Nueva, and active duty National Civilian Police (PNC) officer
Mario Luis Paz Mejia, arrested in Guatemala City, were charged with
murder and illicit association. Charged only with illicit
association were former soldier Edwin Idelmo Lopez (captured in
Escuintla); PNC officer Carlos Humberto Aragon Cardona (captured in
Retalhuleu); Byron Estuardo Santos Divas (captured in Escuintla);
and Samuel Giron Tobar, Balmore Guzman Orellana, Jose Armando Ruano
Gaitan, and Lucas Jose Santiago Lopez (all arrested in San Miguel
Petapa). Aragon worked as a receptionist at the NAS-supported PNC
intelligence unit (CRADIC, Center for Gathering, Analysis, and
Distribution of Criminal Information). He was not authorized
access to sensitive information, and passed polygraph vetting in

2008. All are being held together in Guatemala City's Zone 18
Prison. On September 18 a tenth suspect, PNC officer Miguel de
Jesus Ordonez Barrios, was also arrested.




3. (S) The Chief Investigator for the UN-led International
Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) told Pol/Econ
Counselor Sept. 18 that CICIG has overwhelming evidence against the
men, who together composed a for-hire criminal gang that engaged in
a wide variety of crimes, including extortion and murder. He added
that they worked with the knowledge and complicity of the
leadership of Guatemala City's Precinct 11 police station. CICIG
had wanted to continue following the men, and with the FBI's
assistance had placed a tracking device on the vehicle they used
for the Rosenberg murder. However, indications that they planned
to commit another murder in the near future led CICIG to proceed
with the arrests.




4. (S) The Chief Investigator said the men are currently being
held in a common cell, and that it was imperative to get Guatemalan
prison authorities to transfer them to the new, high security
prison in Fraijaines, where they could be held separately.
Isolating them would help investigators in their interrogations; at
present, the prisoners are collaborating on what to tell the
investigating authorities. Also, CICIG received intelligence
indicating that the gang leader, Santos Divas, is considering
murdering two of the gang members whom he suspects of possible
disloyalty. In the course of the arrests, CICIG captured 37 cell
phones, and is now analyzing their content with NAS assistance.




5. (S) The Chief Investigator said a bodyguard of former Minister
of Government Salvador Gandara hired and paid the gang. CICIG is
investigating what role if any Gandara -- who has since returned to
his previous position as Mayor of Villa Nueva -- may have played in
the murder. The Chief Investigator said CICIG continues to
investigate Luis Mendizabal as a possible intellectual author of
the crime (reftel),and that he hopes to have solved the crime and
arrested those responsible by year's end. During an August
conversation with Pol/Econ Counselor, Gandara said he too believed
Mendizabal was responsible for Rosenberg's murder, and that the
motive for the crime had to do with the lucrative printing contract
for Guatemalan passports.


6. (S) Comment: We are pleased by this substantial progress in
one of CICIG's most important investigations. New plea bargaining
legislation should help CICIG investigators determine the
identities of the masterminds of the Rosenberg murder, and should
also provide leads in the apparently related April murders of
Khalil and Marjorie Musa. We are unsurprised by the involvement of
active duty and former police officers, but are concerned that
among them was a low-ranking CRADIC officer. The alleged
involvement of Gandara's bodyguard raises new questions about the
former Minister of Government, whom the Attorney General's Office
is now investigating for corruption and money laundering.
MCFARLAND