Mexican musicians killings spree

[brownie]

From AP:

SPREE OF MUSICIANS KILLINGS SHOCKS MEXICO

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer

A wave of organized crime violence terrorizing many parts of Mexico is driving fear into the heart of the entertainment business with the murders of several popular musicians, suggesting no one is immune to the rampant brutality.

Most disquieting were the weekend slayings of two singers who had crooned only about love and loss, not drugs and guns like some "narcocorrido" celebrities killed in the past.

The murders of Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, and Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones has mainstream singers worrying they may become targets by becoming identified with one or another of Mexico's warring drug gangs.

"What can I say? We are dismayed about this. I mean, we are all in the same boat," said Javier Diaz, representative of Los Tucanes del Norte, a popular group that often poses with assault rifles to promote its songs and violence-filled videos.

Although not known for songs glamorizing the drug business, Gomez had reportedly received death threats urging him not to appear in the capital of the western state of Michoacan, a hot bed of the drug trade where he was tortured before being strangled Sunday.

Pena was killed with similar brutality the previous day. Gunman fired an execution-style gunshot into her at the hospital where she was recovering from surgery for a bullet wound in her neck suffered Friday at a motel in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Some fear that singers, whether they have any links to drug cartels or not, are routinely "adopted" by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members torturing and executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.

"It really has people worried, because you never know if you go to a concert, what will happen, whether somebody might get shot," said Pablo Zuack, press coordinator for Bandamax, a cable TV channel specializing in northern Mexican music. "When you interview a performer, you never know if it's the last story you'll write about him."

Elijah Wald, author of the book "Narcocorrido," said the musicians' fears may be justified.

"They've just kidnapped and murdered a major international star traveling with bodyguards," he said, referring to Gomez. "That is a very clear message: `We can get anybody.'"

Carolina Jaramillo, a publicist who represented Gomez and other acts, said the singer had no ties to the drug trade that she knew of and she had no reason to believe he would be a target.

"This year, and last year, we have seen a lot of violence," she said. "We don't know where the next one could come from."

Gomez's manager, who is also named Sergio Gomez, told the television network Televisa that the singer had no ties to drug gangs, but had received threats earlier in the day warning him against performing in Morelia, which has been the site of bloody turf battles between Mexico's two main cartels.

The group had canceled an appearance in Morelia last year after similar threats, according to band representative Mario Olvera, and Gomez refused to cancel again.

"In Morelia he told me: 'I'm not afraid to die — I feel happy because I've gotten where I wanted to go, and we've done so much with this group,'" band member Humberto Duran said at a news conference Tuesday.

After the concert, Gomez left with two business associates but was intercepted by 10 Chevrolet Suburbans. His body turned up on a rural roadside with signs of strangulation and severe bruising on the thorax and abdomen as well as burns on the legs. The business associates reportedly were released unharmed.

Hundreds of people mourned Gomez Tuesday in his native Ciudad Hidalgo. About 200 more also gathered in Mexico City, where Gomez's body was transported Tuesday night. People sang the group's best-known songs and some cried holding flowers and photographs.

The scene became chaotic as people pushed each other aside to touch the passing casket.

The slaying of Pena inside a hospital was a tactic redolent of Mexico's drug world, in which gangs have been known to storm hospitals to rescue wounded comrades or finish off injured rivals.

Like Gomez, Pena had no known drug associations. While Gomez was famous for his up-tempo "Pasito Duranguense" rhythm and Pena wrote more in the ballad-like "grupero" style, both essentially sang songs whose themes went little beyond love.

Earlier slayings of entertainers involved musicians who sang about the criminal underworld. Valentin Elizalde, who was killed last year after performing across the border from McAllen, Texas, became popular with "To My Enemies," a song frequently seen as a drug lord's anthem.

Many musicians are now worried that becoming associated with a drug gang may be as easy as waiting for someone to use their song as the soundtrack to a homemade video.

"More than anything else, the point is that musicians make music, they don't belong to any group," said Diaz, the representatives of Los Tucanes. "Nobody has the right to take anybody else's life."

[porcy62]

Looks like Rodriguez' movies: Once Upon a Time in Mexico or El Mariachi.

[kh1958]

3rd Mexican musician found dead

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY -- A trumpet player was found dead with his hands and feet bound and a nylon bag over his head in southern Mexico, in what authorities said was apparently the country's third murder of a musician in less than a week.

Jose Luis Aquino, 33, had been hit repeatedly on the head, said a spokesman for the Oaxaca state attorney general's office who could not be named according to departmental rules. He said authorities were still investigating possible motives but suspected a crime of passion.

Aquino played for Los Conde, based in the southern resort of Puerto Escondido, according to its Web site. The band has recorded a half-dozen albums, and members appeared in the early-1990s film "Mafioso pero Gracioso," or "Funny Mobster."

Los Conde singer and guitar player Francisco Conde said Aquino played for 14 years in the band, was married and had two children.

"He was a good person and never fought with anyone," Conde said. "He didn't smoke or do drugs."

A wave of organized crime violence has terrorized many parts of Mexico and the latest victims appear to be popular musicians.

Most disquieting were the weekend slayings of two singers who had crooned only about love and loss, not drugs and guns like some "narcocorrido" celebrities killed in the past.

The murders of Sergio Gomez, lead performer for the top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, and Zayda Pena of the group Zayda and the Guilty Ones has mainstream singers worrying they may become targets by becoming identified with one or another of Mexico's warring drug gangs.

[BERIGAN]

Man, is this ever terrible!!!! torturing and killing musicians who aren't even singing about gang violence!!! Mexico has got to get a handle on this soon. I know judges get murdered down there whenever they try to go after the drug cartels.....

[MoGrubb]

If they weren't into drugs, maybe they borrowed money from the wrong people. 'Course, they might have gotten caught up in a turf war. On the other hand, maybe their music just sucked.

[Swinging Swede]

The article seems to suggest that the reason these artists are killed by gangs might be that their music has been used as soundtrack in videos posted on the Internet of gang members being tortured and executed by rivalling gangs. In other words, the musicians/singers themselves may have nothing to do with it whatsoever.

What a cruel fate if so, to be tortured and murdered because some gang used your music in a video.

[porcy62]

The article seems to suggest that the reason these artists are killed by gangs might be that their music has been used as soundtrack in videos posted on the Internet of gang members being tortured and executed by rivalling gangs. In other words, the musicians/singers themselves may have nothing to do with it whatsoever.

What a cruel fate if so, to be tortured and murdered because some gang used your music in a video.

Yeah, and the pushers should consume less merchandise. I mean the coke should have had burned your brain to even conceive such idiot thing.

[sheldonm]

Sergio Gomez lived in Indy for a time...very sad to read about this yesterday.

m~