Facundo Cabral assassinated in Guatemala

Facundo Cabral

Facundo Cabral, the well-known Argentinean songwriter, died July 9, the victim of a horrendous shooting in Guatemala on his way to the airport. He was 74 years old and had just finished a concert in that country’s capital before heading to Nicaragua where he was planning to end his concert tour. He was suffering from cancer and was about to go for treatment.

Cabral, who was internationally famous for his songs against violence and right-wing governments, was killed by these same forces.

The vehicle in which he was a passenger was driven by Henry Fariñas, the business agent responsible for the musician’s tour. Even though Cabral’s and Fariñas’ bodyguards, who were accompanying them in separate cars, tried unsuccessfully to deflect the aggression, three cars approached Cabral’s vehicle, one in front to make it reduce speed, while the other two drove on the sides, shooting several times at Fariñas and Cabral.

At the end, Cabral was dead and Fariñas severely injured, although still alive and under protection in a Guatemalan hospital.

This atrocious murder has left the progressive international community with great sadness and anger. The Guatemalan government has declared three days of mourning. The Guatemalan people are so outraged that this crime was committed on their land that many have written signs asking for forgiveness from the world.

Cabral’s childhood was extremely poor and tragic. Later in life he had to leave his native Argentina because of the military dictatorship. But instead of causing rage or sadness, his experiences served to inspire great songs against injustice. Cabral’s best known songs, “No soy de aquí ni soy de allá” (“I am not from here, nor from there”) and “Pobrecito mi Patrón” (“Poor of my boss”), reflect his profound internationalist solidarity and rejection of the oligarchy’s power.

During his life Cabral received many awards and accolades. His assassination is still being investigated, and although several sources point to the possibility that he was victim of an attempt against Fariñas and not against him, the fact remains that this was a very carefully planned attack.

Forces behind the assassination

Rigoberta Menchú, the Indigenous Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner, with whom Cabral shared a United Nations Good Will Ambassador title, stated in an interview with El País, “It is a crime planned from the highest ranks of the fascistoid ultra right.” (July 11)

Guatemala, the poorest country in Central America, is also the most violent in that region. Crimes and human rights violation are committed routinely against the indigenous Mayan population, women, trade unionists and progressive forces.

Since the criminal U.S. company United Fruit, now Chiquita, established itself in Guatemala at the beginning of the 20th century, the Pentagon has kept the people in a virtual prison, preventing the development of a peaceful, democratic and prosperous country. And after the U.S. invasion in 1954, conducted on behalf of transnational corporations to topple the progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, a protracted war against Guatemalan left forces has resulted in more than 1 million displaced persons, more than half a million killed, and thousands still disappeared.

Even though a peace accord ended the 36-year war, Guatemala still hosts the military and paramilitary forces trained in the infamous U.S. School of the Americas, whose legacy forms the core of the current violence and whose only beneficiaries are the members of the oligarchy and the transnational corporations. This situation, alongside extreme poverty and lack of opportunities, particularly for the youth, is the breeding ground in which the country’s infamous criminal gangs grow. These forces and their U.S. backers are the real criminals who killed Facundo Cabral.