Rodrigo Tortilla was a thief of San Theodoran origin. He was the thief who stole the Idol of the Broken Ear and the murderer of the artist, Jacob Balthazar. He was murdered aboard the Ville de Lyon en route to his home country of San Theodoros by Ramon Bada and Alonso Perez. It turns out that he knew of a diamond hidden in the Idol. His knowledge came from a letter written by Lopez, when the latter was dying. Lopez had stolen the diamond and hidden it in the Idol. It was never explained where Tortilla got the letter. But on his way to Europe Tortilla accidently dropped the letter, which Bada and Perez finds. After he steals the Idol, he leaves a copy made by Balthazar to stop the investigation. After murdering Balthazar, he somehow got a fake with him Ville de Lyon and the real one ended among Balthazar's belongings. In the television adaptation of The Broken Ear , Tortilla's character was completely removed from the story and his role at the start of the story was given to Lopez.
