Two men were arrested in Guatemala as part of the investigation into the 2020 assassination of Frenchman Benoît Maria, who had worked for more than twenty years in the country within an NGO helping local populations.
"
As part of the follow-up to the search and seizure procedure in the investigation into the death of Benoît Maria (...) two arrests for assassination took place,
" the prosecution said on Tuesday, September 28 on its Twitter account.
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Benoît Maria, head of Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders (AVSF) in Guatemala, an NGO that supports peasant agriculture in twenty countries, was shot dead on August 10, 2020. He was driving a van on a road located near the indigenous village of San Antonio Ilotenango, in a mountainous area some 85 km northwest of the capital Guatemala.
His death aroused great emotion in France and in this small Central American country.
"
Cowardly assassination
"
French President Emmanuel Macron had condemned on Twitter his "
cowardly assassination
" and Guatemalan vice-president Guillermo Castillo had called on justice to shed light on this murder. The two men, Elias Eliseo and Diego Tay Vicente, were arrested after searches in the village, located in the department of Quiché, added the prosecution without specifying the links between the two men. Weapons and ammunition were seized.
The motive for the murder is still unknown, but the theft has been ruled out because the victim's personal effects, including his phone, computer and cash, were found in the bullet-riddled vehicle.
Benoît Maria, 52, notably provided assistance for the implementation of agricultural projects for the Mayan-ixile populations and had participated in the creation in 2011 of the Ixil University, devoted to the study of the ancestral knowledge of these indigenous peoples. .
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