Facundo Cabral Dead: Police Say Attack was not Meant for Singer, but Driver

An organized attack in Guatemala City has claimed the life of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral, who died early Saturday after unknown assailants in vehicles attacked the car he was riding in together with concert promoter Henry Farina as they traveled from his hotel to the airport, police said, according to La Prensa Libre.

Cabral, 74, was on a Latin America tour. He was leaving his hotel at 5:40 a.m. for an eight-minute trip to the airport, according to CNN.

At least 20 bullet holes were seen in the Range Rover car he was in, government spokesman Ronaldo Robles said.

Robles said the killing was a direct attack and that three specialized investigative teams were assigned to the case.

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Carlos Menocal, Minister for Governance, told La Prensa Libre that the attack was perpetrated from three vehicles: one in front of Cabral's car and two to the right and left.

He said everything indicates that the attack was directed toward Farina and not Cabral, because the trajectory of the bullets were from right to left, toward the driver's seat.

Farina was injured and Menocal indicated that authorities had not yet spoken to him.

Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom decreed three days of national mourning for the death of one [who was] more than an artist, but a person committed to Guatemala, who knew him well as a messenger of peace, according la Presa Libre.

Hundreds of Guatemalans sang songs written by the artist in the capital's Plaza de la Constitucion, according to la Prensa Libre.

This incident was regrettable and was one more manifestation of the violence in Guatemala, said Francisco Dall'Anese, the head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), an organization created in conjunction with the United Nations.

Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Prize Winner from Guatemala arrived at the place where Cabral's body laid, according to the report.

I regret what happened because I had so much respect for Facundo, but above all he was a teacher to me. I always liked his music, since the 1970s. He sang 'I'm Not from Here Nor There' and I think we are singing that song for him, she said.

Rodolfo Ajquejay, President of the Association of Artists in Guatemala, said this is mourning at a global level because [he] left only positive messages in his songs.

It's an act of extreme criminality to give sixteen shots to an almost blind elderly man, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said.