A Nicaraguan judge found businessman and music promoter Henry Fariñas guilty of money laundering, drug trafficking, and organised crime on Wednesday in Managua. Authorities say Fariñas was the likely target of an attack that killed Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala last year.
Fariñas and Cabral were en route to Guatemala City airport on 6th August 2011 when their vehicle was ambushed by gunmen hired, according to prosecutors, by Costa Rican drug trafficker Alejandro Jimenez. Cabral was shot 18 times and died at the scene, while the injured Fariñas survived and was taken to a hospital. Cabral was in Guatemala to give a concert and had no ties with organised crime.
Fariñas, who has denied all charges, was tried with 21 others linked to drug trafficking gangs operating in Central America. Prosecutors accused Fariñas of creating a dozen companies in Nicaragua for the purpose of laundering drug money, and of creating a local support system for moving drugs from Costa Rica to Guatemala. These drugs were then delivered, it is suspected, to Los Charros, a group linked to the Mexican drug cartel Familia Michoacana.
Cabral, a celebrated folk singer from La Plata, was exiled by the military dictatorship in 1976 and sought refuge in Mexico. In 1996 he was recognised by the United Nations as a Messenger of Peace. His death was mourned throughout Latin America.
The sentences for Fariñas and the 21 others accused will be announced next month.
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