Frenchman Benoît Maria, director of the NGO Agronomes and Veterinarians Without Borders (AVSF) in Guatemala, was killed on Monday August 10 during an armed attack in the northeast of the country.
“ We denounce the murder of human rights defender Benoît Maria, ” the Guatemala Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit (Udefegua) wrote on its Twitter account, calling for an investigation by the public prosecutor.
According to several local media outlets, Benedict Maria, 55, was driving a van on a road near the indigenous village of San Antonio Ilotenango, some 85 km northwest of the capital Guatemala, when he was killed. by bullets. The motive for this attack is not known. “ He was ambushed and shot dead in his car. The Guatemalan police are conducting investigations and will do what is necessary, ”said Frédéric Apollin, director general of the NGO AVSF. “ The work on land in Guatemala is sensitive, but we cannot speak of a threat, to our knowledge there was none that weighed on our association or on Benoît who obviously found himself in the wrong place in bad time", Specified Frédéric Apollin, who assures us that AVSF had been working" for 20 years in peace "in the country.
The French embassy in Guatemala expressed in a press release its " consternation ". She adds that she is in " contact with the Guatemalan authorities so that this crime is clarified and justice can be done quickly ". " Well known to the French Embassy, Mr. Maria was working to improve the lot of the most disadvantaged populations in the west of the country, " said this press release published on the Embassy's Facebook page.
According to Jorge Santos, coordinator of Udefegua, Benoît Maria was at the head of AVSF and had lived for more than twenty years in Guatemala, where he notably provided support for agricultural projects in favor of the indigenous Mayan communities of Ixil. He also participated in the creation in 2011 of the University of Ixil, in the department of Quiché, dedicated to the ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples.
