Guarcax’ body was found lifeless with severe marks of torture the following day, reported the Prensa Libre.

Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax Gonzalez was a musician, dancer, teacher and a dedicated advocate for the rights of indigenous Guatemalans. He has been affiliated to the Sotzíl Cultural Centre as an arts teacher and spiritual guide since 2001.

His work was much appreciated amongst the local indigenous communities, and his personal dedication to preserve the local Kaqchikel culture was a great inspiration for many young people on the Sololá plateu.

This is the third murder to hit the Guarcax family in little more than a year. In May 2009, his cousins Ernesto and Carlos Emili Guarcax, also members of the Sotzíl Cultural Centre, suffered similar ends.

Local Maya artists claim that these violent acts are intended to overshadow and stifle the work of Maya art in Guatemala, reports Noticias de Guatemala.

Condelences
With his untimely death, Guatemala and the world community has lost a strong advocate and promoter of indigenous music, dance and theater and pre-hispanic culture. Freemuse has sent a letter of condolences to the Guarcax family.

Freemuse joined the Norwegian Embassy in Guatemala, local and international activists, musicians and 1992 nobel prize winner Rigoberta Menchú in the condemnation of the brutal murder of Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax.