The alleged mastermind of the murder of the Argentine singer Facundo Cabral was returned to Colombia Wednesday in order to avoid the death penalty.
Costa Rican mafia boss Alejandro Jimenez, alias “El Palidejo,” who was being extradited to Guatemala after being captured in the Colombian coastal deparment of Choco, has been sent back after Costa Rica stepped in to protect him.
“The Costa Rican government, where Jimenez is from, asked to suspend his delivery to Guatemala to ensure that he will not receive the death penalty [in the event of his conviction],” the Guatemalan Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla told local media.
Lopez added that “at present” it is not known if “El Palidejo” would be delivered back to Guatemala to be tried for the singer’s murder and for money laundering.
Jimenez had been protected by Colombian drug gangs, the “Rastrojos” and the “Calle Serna,” police reported.