Alejandro Jimenez Gonzalez AKA Palidejo is a Tico businessman who is currently detained in Guatemala on charges of having masterminded a botched assassination that lead to the tragic demise of Facundo Cabral, a troubadour and messenger of peace and justice for the under-privileged in Latin America.

The unfolding of the tragedy and the arrival of Jimenez in Guatemala is proof that life is often stranger than fiction. When the news of Facundo Cabral’s murder hit the airwaves and the online world, people could not believe why anyone would want to hurt one of Latin America’s most celebrated folk singers and pacifists. As it turns out, Cabral was not the target of the assassination allegedly concocted by Palidejo.

The Tragic Life and Death of Facundo Cabral

Life’s eternal irony is exemplified in Facundo Cabral’s trajectory. He was born Rodolfo Enrique Cabral into a poor family of nine siblings whose father chose to abandon. From a very early age, he set off to make a living in an effort to support his family. An unconfirmed anecdote of his life explains that, when he was just 9 years old, Facundo traveled thousands of kilometers to Buenos Aires with a specific goal in mind: to confront the legendary Argentinian power couple of President Juan Peron and the gracious First Lady Eva Duarte. The young Facundo somehow made it to Casa Rosada (the Argentinian palace of government), approached the President and First Lady, and asked that the electoral campaign promise of giving work to the poor be extended to his family. President Juan Peron obliged, which resulted in the Cabral family moving closer to Buenos Aires.

Cabral was an at-risk adolescent with a drinking problem. By age 14 he was in and out of jail, and it was during one of his incarcerations that he met a jailhouse priest who taught him to read and write and steered him towards works of classic literature and philosophy. Despite not having enjoyed much schooling, Facundo was able to get a high school equivalency degree in just a few years. He got into folk music after listening to a homeless busker who sung Christian parables. His first song was a lullaby.

Facundo would later master the guitar and began composing and performing songs that promoted fairness and social change. He started gaining notoriety in the 1970s and would later perform alongside popular musicians such as Julio Iglesias, Neil Diamond and Juan Luis Guerra. His socially conscious songs protested the military dictatorship of Argentina from 1976 to 1983, and thus he went to exile in Mexico. During that time, Cabral achieved a status in Latin America comparable to that of Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, and Rage Against the Machine.

The tragedy of his death mirrored his life. Cabral lost his wife and child to an airplane crash and survived cancer. The adversities of life made him an introspective poet and thinker. Well into his fifties, he turned to Christian mysticism until his murder. He was 74 years old and nearly blind when he passed.

Facundo Cabral was named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations. In fact, our own Nobel Peace Laureate and former President Oscar Arias, who is a fan of Cabral’s work, once nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. During the 2012 Grammy Awards, the lives of Cabral and Whitney Houston were given proper memorials. His death caused an outpouring of sentiment on the social media sphere, with several heads of state and the UN condemning the violent demise of a Latin American peace icon.

The Botched Assassination and Escape Attempt

The 38 year-old Palidejo had been under investigation by OIJ for his alleged ties to organized crime and drug cartels. His family is also believed to have been involved in money laundering, and they are at large. His impressive mansion in Alajuela was seized by authorities who were also looking to arrest him and turn him over to Guatemalan authorities.

It is alleged that Palidejo may have planned the deadly highway ambush in Guatemala City intended to eliminate Henry Farinas, a concert promoter and nightclub owner of Nicaraguan citizenship. Farinas was wounded, but not killed, in the attack. It is unclear whether the perpetrators or the mastermind of the ambush knew that Facundo Cabral was being given a ride to the airport by Farinas after a live performance.  Farinas will probably be investigated as well.

Not only was the assassination bungled, but Palidejo also tried to unsuccessfully escape authorities and hitmen. The Colombian Coast Guard boarded a motor vessel that was sailing in a notorious drug trafficking route. He was carrying false Nicaraguan identification and passport, and Colombia was not his ultimate destination; Palidejo would continue on over land to Argentina -the native land of Facundo Cabral.

According to La Nacion, Palidejo will be detained for at least three months while Guatemalan authorities conduct an investigation. The Laura Chinchilla administration collaborated in the extradition of the Tico Palidejo only on condition that he would be spared from the death penalty if found guilty. Costa Rica has always taken a strong stance against the death penalty around the world, and although no executions have been carried on in Guatemala in over a decade, capital punishment is still part of Guatemala’s codes and statutes.

Guatemalan military and law enforcement authorities escorted Palidejo to his first court appearance and subsequently to the prison where he has been remanded for the time being. The heavy security and the bulletproof vest worn by Palidejo underscore the dangerous world of drug cartels.

Palidejo’s Tico attorneys have explained that the accusations against their client and the reason he chose to flee are consequences of implied threats. Whether Palidejo is involved with the cartels remains to be seen, but it is believed that cartel informants may have alerted the authorities about it. It is also believed that there may have been a $100,000 bounty on Palidejo for the purpose of silencing potential testimony or as retaliation for the failed attempt on Farinas’ life.

Amidst all controversy, Tico fans of Cabral’s body of work promoting social justice and peace will probably remember one of his most famous phrases:

“Every morning is good news, every child that is born is good news, every just and fair man is good news, and every singer is good news -because for every there is one less soldier.”