Why Are Mexican Musicians Being Murdered?

Saturday, December 1st, two men walked into an ICU, pulled a gun and shot a 28 year-old woman who had just emerged from surgery for a gunshot wound sustained earlier in her motel. The woman was Zayda Pena, singer with the Mexican band Zayda y los Culpables.

Monday, just two days after Ms. Pena's death, another musician, Sergio Gomez, of the group K-Paz de la Sierra, was found tortured, strangled and dumped by the roadside after being abducted while leaving a performance.

It's an occurrence that's becoming more and more common in the Mexican drug war's escalating violence since 2000. Drug cartels have been warring over routes used to smuggle drugs like cocaine through Mexico into the United States.

The city of Nuevo Laredo, population 500,000, which lies just across the border from El Paso saw approximately 170 drug cartel related murders in 2005. Only one of these murders resulted in an arrest. Current Mexican president, Filipe Calderon, has sent around 20,000 Mexican troops to the border since taking office in December of 2006, but violence continues to increase. Armed with automatic weapons, satellite phones and GPS equipment, the drug cartels have the money and the incentive to keep fighting.

But why bother killing musicians? Until the most recent killings targeted musicians were singers of narco-corridos. Corridos are Mexican folk songs that began as stories of exploits of bandits in the Mexican country-side. More recently they have morphed into celebrations of illegal immigrants and drug cartels. But Zayda Pena and Sergio Gomez had little connection with drug cartels- even as themes in their music. Now, musicians in Mexico are understandably scared.

Apparently the musician-killing trend began as drug cartels started posting online videos documenting murders of rival cartel members- complete with musical soundtracks. Some of the music had obvious relevance to drug cartels, like murdered musician Valentin Elizalde's "To My Enemies," which had become a sort of drug lord anthem. It had been adopted by the Sinaloa Cartel based in Michoacan. But both Pena and Gomez were best known for love songs.