Alvaro Colom, President of Guatemala

Alvaro Colom, President of Guatemala, accused of murder by his victim.

Good morning. My name is Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano. And regretably, if you are currently watching or listening to this message, it's because I was murdered by President Alvaro Colom.

With these words, Mr. Marzano, a lawyer born and raised in Guatemala, began his last case. With unimaginable courage, he describes the crooked game in which his client, a successful coffee farmer, was used as a pawn by corrupt politicians to extort an equally corrupt bank, and then murdered, along with his daughter, when his usefulness had run out. He describes the evidence he's collected to hold against those who orchestrated the murders, and speaks of how much he'll miss his four children as he predicts his own murder.

Four days later, he was dead.

Guatemala is a Central American country on Mexico's border, about the size and population of Ohio, that emerged from a decades long civil war in 1996, and whose economic growth has been haunted by it's role as an essential conduit for the powerful drug trafficers.

Economist article to be found over here. President Colom, unsurprisingly, makes thin and vague claims about a political kamikaze conspiracy over here.

This story is heart-breaking and yet also uplifting; while the drug wars wrack Latin America and poison small countries like Guatemala, where collusion occurs at the highest levels, there are also tales of courage, from the efforts of Presidents Calderon in Mexico to President Uribe of Colombia; all the way down to the business lawyer for a successful and well respected coffee farmer, who refuses to let his client down, knowing the price he would pay for refusing to let the truth die.

But symbolic acts of unimaginable courage and sacrifice can only start the movement; the legendary sacrifice of the Spartans at Thermopylae may symbolize man's unconquerable will, but if it doesn't inspire the rest of Greece to fight it doesn't actually change anything.

America should stop worrying about fences and tackle the root of drug violence; a huge demand for recreational drugs combined with policies that directly encourage tactics of extortion and murder by driving the industry into the shadows. A policy of decriminalizing possession, such as used successfully by Portugal and now being implemented in Mexico, would be a step in the right direction by focusing attention on the gangs and cartels who traffic rather than the common user; even better would be legalization combined with regulation aimed at reducing use while providing a legitimate market where business tactics don't include drive by shootings and beheadings.

It should also focus less on distant corners of Eurasia and more on what's happening in our own hemisphere, starting with diplomatic pressure on Colom to step aside while an independent and transparent investigtion pursues these charges. The plaintiff stated his accusation, presented his evidence and gave his closing argument. The plaintiff may be at rest, but the verdict is still out.

Today, rather than my usual foray into the visual arts, I'd like to leave you with the words of Raymond Chandler, the great pulp detective writer;

Down these mean streets a man must go, who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero, he is the everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man of his world, and a good enough man for any world.