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The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact

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0:15

Hey, Daddy. She's listeners. Cavalry audio

0:17

and executive producer Oscar Isaac have

0:19

a riveting new true crime podcast you

0:21

won't want to miss. The Rosenberg

0:23

case a tale of murder, corruption, and

0:25

conspiracy in Guatemala. Writer

0:27

and narrator Edgar Castillo unravels the

0:29

true story of the bizarre assassination of

0:32

Rodrigo Rosenberg. an influential

0:34

Guatemalan lawyer who was gunned down while on

0:36

his Sunday morning bike ride in

0:38

May of two thousand nine. At

0:41

his funeral, he posthumously released

0:43

a YouTube video that declared, if you're seeing

0:45

this video, it means that I've been murdered by president

0:48

Alvaro Colone. Guatemala's sitting

0:50

president. The video unleashed a

0:52

major political upheaval and one of the most

0:54

unpredictable murder investigations in history.

0:57

I'm about to play you a clip from the Rosenberg

0:59

case. And while you're listening, be sure

1:01

to follow an Apple Podcasts or wherever

1:03

you get your podcasts. You can also listen

1:05

episodes a week early and add free

1:07

by subscribing to Cavalry Plus on the Apple

1:09

Podcasts app. Click the link in the

1:11

show notes to listen to the entire season.

1:14

Cavalry

1:18

audio. On

1:20

May tenth two thousand nine, Rodrigo

1:23

Rosenberg, Marchano, woke up early

1:25

around seven o'clock. It

1:28

was a bright and fresh Sunday morning

1:30

in Guatemala City, the capital

1:32

of Guatemala. It was Mother's

1:34

Day. That morning,

1:37

Rosenberg woke up early. because he

1:39

had a lot on his mind.

1:40

He was

1:41

in the middle of the biggest, most

1:43

consequential case of his career, and

1:46

he needed to clear his head.

1:50

Rodrigo Rosenberg was a prominent

1:52

corporate lawyer, a wealthy

1:54

member of the elite class. He

1:57

had an apartment in zone fourteen,

1:59

an opulent neighborhood

2:02

where diplomats and heirs to

2:04

colonial coffee fortunes live in

2:06

heavily guarded high rises. At

2:09

forty eight years old, Rosenberg

2:11

was still fit and healthy, still

2:13

in his pride.

2:15

And that morning, a few minutes

2:18

after eight, he put

2:20

his headphones on.

2:22

cued up a Santana song on his iPod,

2:26

and set off on a bike ride.

2:29

At ten minutes past eight, he

2:32

was only a block away from his apartment building

2:35

heading down the surface road

2:37

when it happened.

2:45

The first entered his back,

2:47

exiting

2:47

out the left

2:48

side of his stomach.

2:51

The

2:51

next two shots hit the left side of

2:53

his face on the cheek.

2:56

The

2:56

fourth bullet was probably the one that

2:58

killed him. It entered

3:00

from underneath his jaw, ripped

3:03

through his eye, and

3:04

bursts out through his left temple.

3:08

His

3:08

body collapsed onto a grass embankment

3:10

on the side of the road.

3:12

Then

3:12

for good measure, the

3:14

killer placed the barrel of his nine millimeter

3:17

to the center of Rosenberg's forehead

3:19

and fired at point blank range.

3:24

Rodrigo

3:24

Rosenberg was dead, murdered.

3:29

Six thousand four hundred ninety eight

3:32

That's how many homicides, Guatemala,

3:34

recorded in two thousand nine. Given

3:37

the Central American country, one of

3:39

the highest per capita murder rates

3:41

in the world. Meaning,

3:45

it wasn't that unusual to see

3:47

someone gunned down in the middle of a street

3:49

in broad daylight. But

3:52

the murder of Rosenberg was

3:54

different.

3:55

Hell, it wasn't different. It was

3:57

different on steroids and then

3:59

dipped in barbecue sauce. And

4:02

within forty eight hours, It would

4:04

plunge the entire nation of Guatemala

4:07

into total chaos.

4:10

This is a story about a murder.

4:13

about how one murder exploded into

4:16

a political firestorm. It's

4:19

about the international team of investigators

4:22

tasked with solving the crime and

4:24

unraveling the Byzantine Mystery

4:27

behind it. The shocking

4:29

twists and turns of which would involve

4:31

the most powerful people in Guatemala,

4:34

including the president himself.

4:38

This is a story about power,

4:42

about secrets and lies, about

4:45

the craziest most baffling political

4:47

conspiracy ever.

4:50

I know that sounds like a bold statement, but

4:52

trust me, you've never come across

4:54

anything like this.

4:55

Imagine

4:56

Oliver Stone sipping on

4:59

Ayahuasca Tea while going

5:01

full pizzagate on YouTube. That's

5:03

the level we're gonna reach here.

5:09

But whenever I think about the Rosenberg

5:11

case, I

5:11

always think about the man himself.

5:14

his

5:14

state of mind.

5:16

And I always come back to the same

5:18

question. The

5:20

morning he was murdered right before

5:22

he died, What was he

5:24

thinking? As

5:27

he rode his bike, sunshine on

5:29

his face, music playing in his

5:31

ears, What was going

5:33

through his head? Was

5:35

he asking himself questions like, how

5:38

did this happen? How did it

5:40

come to this? could I have

5:42

done something differently?

5:44

Should I keep going? When

5:46

that first bullet

5:48

hit him in the back, as

5:50

his body went numb and

5:52

the light began to fade,

5:54

maybe he was asking himself the same

5:57

question the whole world would

5:59

soon be asking,

6:01

who killed Rodriguez Rosenberg?

6:07

the map

6:10

From Cavalry Audio, an

6:13

executive producer Oscar

6:14

Isaac.

6:15

I'm Edgar Castillo, and

6:18

this is the Rosenberg

6:19

case.

6:21

You're listening to episode one.

6:24

the lawyer.