The popular Mexican regional music band Grupo Firme announced on Friday that it was canceling a performance in a music festival in California over the weekend after the United States government suspended the musicians’ visas.
It comes after the U.S. State Department has revoked visas of a number of Mexican musicians for playing a genre of music that it says glorifies cartel violence. The announcement also came just two days after the bodies of five Mexican musicians were found in Reynosa along the Texas border.
Grupo Firme, which has soared to international fame playing Mexican regional music, said in a statement posted on its Instagram account that the visas of them and their team are currently under “administrative review by the U.S. Embassy” and that it would make it “impossible” for them to perform in the La Onda Fest to be held in the city of Napa Valley, California on June 1. But the post didn’t detail what it would mean in the long term for the musical group.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said that visa cases are confidential according to U.S. law and couldn’t provide more information on the case.
The suspension is just the latest in a series of moves the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has taken targeting Mexican artists in the genre, who in some cases have glorified the leaders of cartels as sort of Robin Hood figures. While the genre of “narco-corridos” has stirred controversy, much of the music also speaks to the harsh realities facing Mexican youth caught in cartel violence.
Two months ago, the Mexican musical group Los Alegres del Barranco was sanctioned after it projected images of the leader of the feared Jalisco New Generation Cartel at a concert in the western state of Jalisco.
“I’m a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn’t mean that expression should be free of consequences,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said at the time. “The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.”
But Grupo Firme has taken steps in recent months to distance itself from the facet of the musical genre glorifying criminal groups, announcing in April shortly after the controversy that it would not sing such music in concerts.
Musicians caught in cartel turf wars
Mexican musicians have previously been targeted by criminal groups that pay them to compose and perform songs that glorify the exploits of their leaders.
Such performers often live in close proximity to their drug lord patrons, and can at times get caught up in cartel turf battles.
On Thursday, the five musicians from the band Grupo Fugitivo were found dead after prosecutors said they had been kidnapped. Officials said nine suspects believed to be part of a faction of the Gulf Cartel, which has strong presence in the city, have been arrested.
“Narcocorridos” are a controversial sub-genre of music in Mexico, and the songs have caught the attention of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who recently launched a music contest “for peace and against addictions,” seeking to counter the popularity of the music among young people in Mexico and the United States.
Several regions in the country have banned “narcocorridos,” sparking a recent riot during a concert after a singer refused to perform some of his most popular songs.
In January this year, a small plane was reported to have dropped pamphlets on a northwestern city threatening around 20 music artists and influencers for alleged dealings with a warring faction of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
In 2018, armed men kidnapped two members of the musical group “Los Norteños de Río Bravo,” whose bodies were later found on the federal highway connecting Reynosa to Río Bravo, Tamaulipas.
In 2013, 17 musicians from the group Kombo Kolombia were executed by alleged cartel members in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, allegedly because of links to a rival gang.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
Leave a Reply