Recently, the popular music group Fuerza Regida has been threatened with death by the Tijuana Cartel in Mexico. This has led to the cancellation of a scheduled concert of the group in that border city on October 6. This incident highlights the influence exerted by drug cartels on cultural life and entertainment in some regions of Mexico.
Fuerza Regida is a musical group originally from California that performs a style known as “corridos tumbados,” a variant of the norteño genre that often deals with drug trafficking issues. Their explicit lyrics about specific cartels, such as the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, have generated controversy.
A few days ago, the Mexican regional band launched EL Jefe alongside Shakira:
The Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Cartel, is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking. It controls the Tijuana-San Diego corridor, one of the busiest smuggling routes into the United States.
Threats and cancellation of the concert
Through banners placed in different parts of Tijuana, the cartel threatened to kill the members of Fuerza Regida if they performed in the city. The banners contained an explicit message from the criminal group to prevent corridos tumbados singers from performing in Tijuana.
Faced with these threats, Fuerza Regida was forced to cancel the concert scheduled for October 6 at Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium. The cancellation came just days before the scheduled date.
Reactions
The incident has generated concern about the ability of Mexican cartels to exert control over cultural life in certain regions, limiting freedom of artistic expression. Activists and analysts also point out that such threats send a chilling message about who holds the real power in some areas of the country.
For their part, Mexican authorities have not commented on the case. Nor have they guaranteed the security of the Fuerza Regida group to perform in Tijuana. This situation reflects the challenges Mexico faces in containing drug violence.
The incident with Fuerza Regida highlights how drug cartel activity in Mexico goes beyond drug trafficking and impacts social and cultural life. The threat to a musical group for its lyrics exemplifies the ability of these criminal organizations to exert control and sow fear among the population. Overcoming this scourge will require security measures and comprehensive actions to strengthen the rule of law and democratic institutions in the affected regions.