Costa Rica names suspect in singer Cabral killing (AP)

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – A Costa Rican is suspected of being behind the ambush last month that killed Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral and wounded a Nicaraguan businessman who is believed to have been the target, authorities said Tuesday.

Alejandro Jimenez Gonzalez is accused of leading an organized crime group involved in money laundering with operations around Central America, Costa Rican Attorney General Jorge Chavarria told reporters.

Chavarria said authorities believe a rift over a theft of illegal drug money led to the July 9 attack that Guatemalan authorities think was aimed at Henry Farinas, who survived. Farinas was driving Cabral to the airport when they were ambushed.

Costa Rican authorities said they raided five properties Tuesday believed linked to Jimenez or his family. They say he may have fled to Panama.

Three other suspects have been arrested in Guatemala in relation to the attack.

Guatemala's chief prosecutor, Claudia Paz y Paz, has said the men appeared to have had Farinas under surveillance for about a week before the attack.

A Guatemalan investigator, who would not allow his named to be used, has said the suspects told authorities they didn't know the famous folk singer was in the car.

Cabral, who was 74, rose to fame in the early 1970s as part of a generation of singers who mixed political protest with literary lyrics.

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Final farewell for Argentine folk singer Cabral (AFP)

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Argentina bade farewell Wednesday to one of its most beloved entertainers, the folk singing troubadour Facundo Cabral, who was gunned down at the weekend in Guatemala at the age of 74.

The body of the La Plata-born native, who was famously nomadic, was taken to a cemetery 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Buenos Aires for cremation at an intimate private ceremony with just family and close friends in attendance.

The size of the gathering was in stark contrast to the huge outpouring of emotion seen across the region since Cabral was shot and killed by gunmen on Saturday evening on his way to the main international airport in Guatemala.

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner announced three days of national mourning and fans turned up in their droves to pay final respects as Cabral's coffin was displayed in the Teatro ND Ateneo in the heart of Buenos Aires after his body was flown home from Guatemala on Tuesday.

"His homeland was not Argentina but the entire world," said Maria del Carmen, 70, on a street jammed with television trucks. "I had to be here: he died for peace and love."

The closed coffin, which lay in state for more than 24 hours before the cremation ceremony, was draped in an Argentine flag and flowers from fans littered the floor. Cabral's widow, Venezuelan psychologist Silvia Pousa, has not revealed what will be done with his ashes.

Officials believe Cabral's promoter and driver, Nicaraguan businessman Henry Farina, was the real target of Saturday's attack, which sources say may have been drug-related.

Farina, who was wounded in the shooting, is recovering in hospital under heavy police guard, and is considered a key witness.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the shooting.

Guatemalan Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz said Elkin Hernandez had led the band of gunmen, while the second suspect, Wilfred Arnold, managed a nightclub owned by Farina and is accused of masterminding the attack.

A global nomad who claimed to have visited 150 countries and said he was deeply inspired by the US poet Walt Whitman, Cabral's music was largely about peace, love and everyday pleasures and pain.

His songs include the 1970s hit "I'm not from here nor there" and are frequently performed by other Spanish-language performers. He was deemed "World Peace Messenger" in 1996 by UNESCO.

The broad daylight attack sent shockwaves through Latin America, taking down one of the region's undisputed stars and shining a spotlight on the murky underworld of Guatemala's lawless maras or drug gangs.

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Argentine singer Facundo Cabral killed in Guatemala (Reuters)

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Argentine singer Facundo Cabral, one of the stars of Latin American folk music, was shot dead in Guatemala City early on Saturday when gunmen riddled his car with bullets, authorities said.

Cabral, who rose to fame in the 1970s as a protest singer, was on his way to the airport when three vehicles boxed in his white Range Rover and opened fire, killing him and injuring his driver, Guatemala's Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said.

Police earlier said the driver was killed.

Born to a poor family in 1937, the outspoken Cabral was best known for his 1970 song "No Soy De Aqui, Ni Soy De Alla," ("I'm Not From Here, I'm Not From There Either") which was covered by many other artists including Julio Iglesias.

Cabral went into exile in Mexico during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship. His songs later turned more spiritual and he continued to fill concert halls across Latin America. He had been in the Central American country on tour.

Argentine television stations interrupted their broadcasts with news of the 74-year-old singer's death.

Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom vowed swift action.

"We will find these criminals and bring them to justice," he told Argentine radio.

Colom said he spoke to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to offer his condolences for the killing, the motive for which was unclear. Guatemala, one of the region's poorest countries, has one of Latin America's highest murder rates.

Guatemalan authorities said the gunmen peppered Cabral's car with 18 bullets in an exchange of fire with the singer's security detail, which was in a separate vehicle.

His driver, businessman Henry Farina, was injured, along with one person from Cabral's security detail. Enrique Vaca Narvaja, Argentina's consul to Guatemala, told Argentine television Farina may also have been a target.

Cabral was mourned by fans across Latin America. Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman paid tribute to the singer.

"The murder of Facundo Cabral in Guatemala brings us great sadness," he wrote on his Twitter account. "Adios amigo!"

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez followed suit: "We are weeping with Argentina."

Edgar Palacios, 54, a fan in Guatemala City, said the singer would not be forgotten.

"Facundo Cabral died but his music will never die, just like John Lennon died but his music never died," he said. "Cabral wasn't just from one country. He was a universal man."

Guatemala has been racked by incursions from Mexican drug gangs, notably the brutal Zetas cartel.

Colom has struggled to contain the violence and Cabral's murder is an embarrassment to the president just two months before a first round of presidential elections which polls show his center-left National Union of Hope party (UNE) may lose. Colom himself is barred by law from seeking re-election.

(Additional reporting by Alejandro Lifschitz and Walter Bianchi in Buenos Aires; Writing by Dave Graham and Jason Lange; Editing by Vicki Allen and Doina Chiacu)

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Folk singer Facundo Cabral killed in Guatemala (AP)

GUATEMALA CITY – One of Latin America's most admired folk singers, Facundo Cabral, was killed Saturday when three carloads of gunmen ambushed the vehicle in which he was riding, prompting expressions of anguish from across the region. Authorities said the performer's concert promoter was apparently the target.

Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said the Argentine singer and novelist was on his way to Guatemala's main airport at 5:20 a.m. when cars flanked it on both sides and gunmen opened fire as a third vehicle blocked it from the front.

Speaking at a news conference along with President Alvaro Colom, the minister said early investigations indicated the bullets were meant for the driver, Cabral's Nicaraguan promoter, Henry Farinas, who was wounded.

Cabral, 74, rose to fame in the early 1970s, one of a generation of singers who mixed political protest with literary lyrics and created deep bonds with an audience struggling through an era of revolution and repression across Latin America.

Colom said he had called his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez, to tell her of the slaying.

"It seemed to hit her hard and she asked me to keep her informed about how the investigation is developing," he told Argentina's Radio 10.

At the news conference later, he said the slaying was committed by "people involved in organized crime. They are not street killers. It's a well-planned operation." But officials said they were not sure of the motive.

Cabral's vehicle was trailed by a vehicle carrying four bodyguards, who opened fire and tried to chase the attackers, Menocal said.

Officials later found one of the vehicles apparently used in the attack alongside a highway toward El Salvador. Menocal said flak jackets, pistols and the magazine of a Kalashnikov assault rifle were found inside.

Menocal said Cabral initially planned to take a hotel shuttle to the airport, but accepted a ride from Farinas.

Cabral was a confirmed vagabond, born poor in 1937 in the provincial city of La Plata after his father abandoned their large family. At the age of 9, he began hitchhiking alone up the length of Argentina to beg for a job for his mother.

He did odd jobs and was illiterate until he got some education in a reformatory as a teenager. He eventually picked up a guitar, singing in the manner of his idol, Argentine folklorist Atahualpa Yupanqui.

Cabral began singing for tourists in the beach resort of Mar del Plata, and by 1970 became internationally known through his song "No soy de aqui ni alla" — "I'm Not From Here Nor There — which was recorded hundreds of times in many languages.

By the time Argentina fell under military rule in 1976, Cabral was clearly identified as a protest singer, and so he fled for his life to Mexico, where he kept recording, writing books and giving concerts.

He lost his wife and a 1-year-old daughter in a plane crash in 1978.

His concerts were a mix of philosophy and folklore, spoken-word poems and music reflecting his roots in the gaucho culture of rural Argentina. He identified himself as an anarchist at times, professing a spirituality unchained to any particular religion. On stage, he celebrated the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, the humanism of Walt Whitman and the observations of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

"Facundo Cabral was our last troubadour. As much a philosopher-poet as a singer, he was a living testament to the search for what unites us in culture and society," said Argentine singer Isabel de Sebastian. "After his concerts, you'd feel that our life in common was richer, more mysterious, more profound."

He lived mostly on the road, in hotels and with friends, telling interviewers that he owned no home. He was particularly proud that UNESCO declared him to be an "international messenger of peace" in 1996. By the end, he often used a cane and had trouble with his vision, but refused to slow down.

"I always ask God, 'Why have you given me so much?' You've given me misery, hunger, happiness, struggle, enlightenment ... I've seen everything. I know there's cancer, syphilis and springtime, and fried apple dumplings," Cabral said at 71, during an Associated Press interview in Miami.

He never thought of retiring: "I can't stop, I wouldn't be able to," he said. "I breathe on the road ... on stage I'm 50 years younger, it pleases me to excite people with life."

Cabral said then he would like to die while on a concert tour.

Cabral gave his last concert Thursday in the city of Quetzaltenango, 120 miles (200 kilometers) west of Guatemala City.

Guatemala's 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchu, went to the scene of the killing and wept. "For me, Facundo Cabral is a master," she said. "He loved Guatemala greatly." Other Guatemalans also came to the site, leaving flowers.

Words of mourning came from the presidents of Colombia and Ecuador, and even the Twitter site of Venezuela's ailing President Hugo Chavez carried a message of condolence to Argentina at the death of "the great troubadour of the Pampas."

Argentina's foreign minister, Hector Timerman, also sent a Twitter message, saying "Adios, amigo" and expressing "profound sadness."

Social networks were filled with expressions of outrage. "I feel an immeasurable shame, a profound anger for my country," said Ronalth Ochaeta, former director of a Catholic Church human rights office Guatemala, on his Facebook account.

___

Associated Press writers Gisela Salomon in Miami and Michael Warren in Buenos Aires contributed to this story

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