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Latin America reels from popular singer's murder

GUATEMALA CITY : A UN-backed panel that probes crime in Guatemala joined Sunday the investigation into the killing of po

Published July 10, 2011 Updated July 10, 2011 08:16pm

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By Syed Murtaza Gheblehzadeh

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A spokesman for the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) confirmed to AFP the panel had joined the probe as the region reeled from the killing Saturday after Argentine-born Cabral, 74, had finished two performances in the Guatemalan capital.

Tributes poured in Sunday far and wide, with famed Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez hailing Cabral, and the Salvadoran Catholic church lamenting his death, saying it was a "crime that moved the world."

The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, condemned the murder as an "irrational crime."

Cabral was driving to the airport to fly to nearby Nicaragua for more performances when unidentified gunmen attacked his white four-wheel drive vehicle. Riddled with bullets died in the car, police said.

The motive was not immediately known, but Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said Saturday it appeared gunmen could have mistakenly killed the singer after taking him for Nicaraguan businessman Henry Farina, who had hired Cabral for the shows.

"So far everything seems to indicate the hit was supposed to have been against Farina and not the singer," said Menocal, adding that police found a car used in the killing with bulletproof vests inside.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom decreed three days of official mourning "for someone who was committed to the country."

Colom said Guatemala had to be painstaking in its investigation. "I know that this is not easy, but I hope that we will join together in finding the truth and capturing these criminals," the president said.

Cabral, who was born in La Plata, in Buenos Aires province, became a star as part of the 1970s protest music movement.

A global nomad who said he was deeply inspired by the US poet Walt Whitman, his music was largely about peace, love and everyday pleasures and pain.

Cabral's songs, which include the 1970s hit "I'm not from here, nor am I from there," are frequently performed by other well-known Spanish-language singers like Julio Iglesias, Juan Luis Guerra and Joan Manuel Serrat.

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