From Jenni Rivera to Julión Álvarez: the perpetual link between banda music and drug trafficking in Mexico

For more than 10 years, drug trafficking in Mexico has intensified, killing thousands each year. However, it is a crime that has existed – especially in the north of the country – for several decades. And he has become so ingrained that he has established a culture of his own and as such has his own behavioral characteristics when it comes to speaking, dressing. As for music, there is a genre that has practically become its flagship: group music.

Thus, songs that apologize to the crime through the close relationship between the main representatives of the genre with the main leaders of these criminal associations, that of group music and that of drug trafficking are two complementary stories; one cannot count one without the other.

And the example of this link is the fate – sometimes fatal – that various band singers have experienced, also linked to links to drug traffickers.

Jenni Rivera and the ‘Barbie’ statements

“I went to the Monterrey Arena and There too I got a tweet that said if I went upstairs to sing the Zetas were going to kill me, all I did was turn off my phone and go upstairs to sing, Obviously, I was tense, but I went out to sing, ”said singer Jenni Rivera, named“ diva of the group ”in an interview she gave before December 9, 2012, the day of her death after suffering a plane crash.

This dialogue led by singer and radio host Pepe Garza became known 7 years after Rivera’s crash, as she revealed details that she only wanted to be made public if something happened to her. And it was there that he confessed that he had been the victim of death threats, which allegedly came to him from organized crime in Mexico.

One of the versions that took the most force on the reason for the death of the singer were the statements of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, the ‘Barbie’, who allegedly claimed the death claiming that he had ordered it to the request of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

“There was a meeting before that day. “El Chapo” spoke to me on the phone and told me that Jenni was forbidden to play in Monterrey, because the Zetas were very tough, that you had to be very careful about that. There, he ordered that all those our friends were going to play there be killed because it endangered the safety of everyone, ”reportedly said the drug dealer detained since 2010.

The singer approached early in the morning of December 9, 2012 a Learjeat 25 matrícula N325MC, bound for Toluca airport. But the plane crashed and fell on the ranch “El Tejocote”, municipality of Iturbide, in the north of the state of Nuevo León. Neither she nor any of her six companions survived.

Valentín Elizalde and his offense to the narco

The murder has never been solved. Saturday evening 23 November 2006 Valentin Elizalde He opened and closed his show in Tamaulipas with one of his biggest hits: To my enemies.

That same night, a few hours later, he found himself dead in his truck, the victim of a crime that shook the entertainment world in Mexico.

Elizalde left the palenque of the Expo Fair to Reynosa aboard a black Suburban and accompanied by his representative, Mario Mendoza Grajeda placeholder image, his cousin, Fausto “Tano” Elizalde and the driver, Reynaldo Ballesteros.

While the truck had barely advanced a hundred yards, two cars caught up with them and blocked the road. Three men came down carrying large caliber weapons (AK-47, AR-15 and .38 super) and started shooting at the vehicle the singer was traveling in. More than 20 gunshot wounds were counted on each side of the vehicle and more than 60 shells remained at the scene of the crime.

Of all the assassination hypotheses, the one that carries the most weight is the one related to the last subject he broached before his death.

The song is a hymn to the Sinaloa cartel and its founder Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo. Some believe the trigger was pulled by rivals, The Zetas, since the fateful spectacle of Elizalde took place in the territory of Gulf Cartel and the singer decided to open and his presentation with this song.

Another version points to the cousin who accompanied him that night, “Tano” Elizalde, pointed out by Valentin’s ex-wife, Marisol Cabrera, as responsible for the death of the Mexican singer.

Sergio Gómez and his brutal murder

After being kidnapped, the singer’s body was found on December 3, 2007 and his death became one of the crimes that impacted the world of grupera music in Mexico.

It was the time when the pasito duranguense it sounded at mass dances across Mexico. In the vast world of grupera music, the voice and style of Sergio Gómez, the leader of the K-Paz de la SierraBut the taste for fame would not last long. The performer was brutally murdered and his execution is remembered today as one of the worst crimes gang members have faced.

The tragedy began to start of a concert in which he performed with the late Joan Sebastian, at the Morelos stadium, Morelia, Michoacán in the early morning hours of December 1, 2007. And the drama was consummated on December 3, when Sergio’s body, with obvious signs of torture, was found on a highway in Michoacán state.

The singer was said to have received threats over the phone not to appear in Morelia, but Sergio ignored the warnings and after finishing the concert and leaving, a convoy of men with long arms set out to find the truck he was in.

The strongest theory was that “La Familia Michoacana” was involved. According to Gómez’s knowledge, K-Paz de la Sierra had been threatened by Nazario Moreno González “El Chayo”, late the leader of the cartel, because the group had made a presentation to “Los Zetas”, a rival group of the criminal organization.

Julión Álvarez and the accusations of money laundering

After a year of confinement and keeping a low profile in front of the media, Julión Álvarez reappeared at the beginning of this month, through a press release, to announce that very soon he will celebrate his 14 years of experience. artistic with a concert via diffusion which will have no cost for your audience.

The music of the famous Mexican regional singer continues to be restricted on music platforms and on social networks, but the performer does not give up hope that this situation will be resolved soon and justice rules on his innocence in the event that he is linked to drug trafficking.

And that was four years ago when Julión has been honored by the US Treasury Department for his alleged involvement in illicit money laundering activities, his career has therefore been severely affected, for while the investigative process continues to determine his alleged relationship with a drug dealer nicknamed “El tío”, the singer from La Concordia, Chiapas, is unable to make presentations in the northern countries nor broadcast their music in any space.

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