Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said Monday that organized criminals are behind the attack that killed beloved Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral.
"It's evident that the attack came from organized crime and that's what we are investigating," Colom told Mexico's MVS Radio.
Colom said gunmen were after Nicaraguan businessmen Henry Farinas, who was driving Cabral to the airport when they were ambushed Saturday by assailants in three cars. Cabral died at the scene. Farinas was wounded and is in serious condition.
He didn't say which organize crime group could be involved.
Authorities say Mexico's Zetas and Sinaloa drug cartels have a presence in Guatemala and may be competing for territory.
Cabral, 74, 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.
Colom said police haven't been able to interview Farinas, who owns a chain of strip clubs called "Elite," with branches in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
Farinas had hired Cabral to give a concert in Nicaragua, authorities said.
Prosecutor Mynor Melgar said police are investigating Farinas but that he had no criminal record.