Colombia expelling suspect in singer’s murder
Mar 13, 2012, 8:16 PM
Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – A Colombian national police spokesman says a man arrested in last year’s fatal shooting of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala is being expelled for entering Colombia with false documents.
Gen. Oscar Naranjo says Guatemalan authorities want 38-year-old Alejandro Jimenez Gonzalez of Costa Rica in the July killing of Cabral. Costa Rica asked that Jimenez be extradited directly to Guatemala.
Naranjo says counternarcotics police arrested Jimenez on Saturday in a speedboat that Colombia’s navy tracked from Panama into Colombia’s waters.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ A Costa Rican man arrested in last year’s fatal shooting of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral may be deported back to his country because he allegedly entered Colombia with false documents, the national police chief said Tuesday.
Police director Oscar Naranjo told reporters that the possible expulsion of Alejandro Jimenez Gonzalez is being discussed with foreign ministry officials. Guatemala has sought his extradition.
Jimenez was captured Monday on a speed boat off Colombia’s Pacific coast. He is also accused of leading a criminal group involved with money laundering in Central America.
Cabral, 74, was gunned down in Guatemala last July in an attack that authorities believe was aimed at Nicaraguan businessman Henry Farina, who was driving the singer to the airport. Farina was wounded.
Three other suspects were arrested last year in Guatemala in relation to the attack, but Jimenez had been a fugitive. Guatemala officials say the killers appear to have had Farina under surveillance for about a week before the July 9 attack and didn’t know Cabral was in the vehicle.
Costa Rican Security Minister Mario Zamora said Jimenez was captured trying to enter Colombia from Panama.
His arrest is “important because he is someone who plays a major role in the leadership and direction of organized mafias in Central America,” Zamora told radio station RCN.
Cabral 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.
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