Facundo Cabral Dead: 'Violence is Stupidity,' Folk Singer Said in 2009

In 2009, Facundo Cabral was set to tour Guatemala, the place where he was shot and killed Saturday morning.

The much-admired Argentine folk singer in a 2009 interview with the spanish language La Prensa Libre recalled Guatemala - which he visited for the first time as a singer about three decades earlier - as a country with whom he had a friendship and where I have learned much. The interview was republished online after Saturday's shooting.

Guatemala has always been a luminous place for me, and I'm very happy to go, he said.

Carlos Menocal, Minister for Governance, told reporters on Saturday that the attack in Guatemala City was perpetrated by unknown assailants traveling in three vehicles near Cabral's vehicle, according to La Prensa Libre.

Cabral was headed to the airport from his hotel as a passenger in a Range Rover driven by concert promoter Henry Farina.

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

Farina was injured but police had not yet spoken to him at the time the statement was made. An investigation is ongoing.

2009

Cabral said the 2009 tour was meant as a goodbye because he was physically weak due to age. It would be a testament to my experience which I leave to the youth who are just starting to live.

He was asked by interviewer Alfredo Vicente what that testament would be.

That life is an invaluable gift, that we are born to live, and that [life] can only be lived in love, he said.

Cabral also recalled the many countries he had visited during his career, saying he learned much from nations with pre-Columbian cultures such as Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico and India. He also said he learned much artistically and intellectually in Europe, mentioning France, Italy, Spain and Portugal where my relatives came from.

I'm very thankful to the world. From January 1, 1960 I've been in 165 countries. I'm not very competitive but it's a record.

He was asked if it had been music that motivated him to go to so many places.

Cabral said it started with Christianity. My prompt to walk the world was the great news that Jesus brought: That the Father is only one. The news excited me and there I knew there that if there is only one father, humanity is a single family ... we're just one country. What I don't understand is how so many people don't understand.

He was asked what his message would be for Guatemala's public, where people live with so much insecurity.

Violence has become globalized. Violence ... is stupidity. Pope John Paul II said that we should globalize solidarity. We are brothers. We live so much better when we respect each other, he said.

Cabral remarked upon his physical condition, saying he did not expect he would travel again and thought he would stay in contact with many people in the world because now they're going to help me stay in touch with the youth through the Internet.

Artistically, it's difficult because I barely walk and see little. My skeleton no longer wants to follow. I'm very thankful to God and feel the need to share to give him thanks.

He was asked how he would share with people.

Through life experiences because personal experience is what reaches people most. People didn't tell me that life is a party, I've proved it. They didn't tell me the world is rich, I walked it. Mother Teresa, who was a great friend, said I wasn't an artist, that I was a witness because I gave my testimony of life, and she was right. That's how I see it because I made my life a work of art, and that work is not in books or in music. My work of art is to live, and it really belongs to God, who took me by the hand.