One of Latin America's most admired folk singers, Facundo Cabral, 74, was killed on Saturday 9 July 2011 at the end of a concert tour in Guatemala when three carloads of gunmen ambushed the vehicle in which he was riding, prompting expressions of anguish from across the region. Authorities said the performer's Nicaraguan concert promoter, Henry Farinas, was apparently the target. [Source: Associated Press]

There are fuller reports available from The Guardian, the BBC, and The Washington Post.

Here is a recent YouTube clip of Cabral performing his best known song No soy de acqui ni soy de alla ("I am not from here nor from there").

Some details of his life can be found on his the website facundocabral.org. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1937, and began singing in 1959. He fled the military dictatorship in Argentina in 1976 and settled in Mexico, but returned to Argentina in 1984. He composed his own songs of social criticism combined with humour.

During an Associated Press interview in Miami at the age of 71 Cabral said; "I always ask God, 'Why have you given me so much?' You've given me misery, hunger, happiness, struggle, enlightenment ... I've seen everything. I know there's cancer, syphilis and springtime, and fried apple dumplings,"

Matthew Edwards