Guatemala: the French director of the NGO AVSF shot dead

The French humanitarian world in mourning. After the attack that occurred this weekend in Niger, and which claimed the lives of six French people, a new tragedy took place on Monday in Guatemala. Frenchman Benoît Maria, director of the NGO Agronomes and Veterinarians Without Borders (AVSF) in Guatemala, was killed in 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. Guatemala, a country plagued by drug trafficking and racketeering, suffers from a very high crime rate.

Shot on the road

According to several local media, Benoît Maria 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 shot dead.

The motive for this attack was not immediately known. 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.

"He worked to improve the lot of the people"

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".

Statement by the French Embassy following the assassination of French national Benoit Maria pic.twitter.com/sm8cDijJb8

"Well known to the French Embassy, ​​Mr. Maria worked to improve the lot of the most disadvantaged populations in the west of the country", further indicates this press release from the Embassy.