Mexico offers protection to famous narcocorrido singer after death threats from drug cartel

By Megan Janetsky – The Associated Press

Mexican authorities have offered state-level protection to famous regional music singer Natanael Cano and other artists after a drug cartel in the north of the country publicly threatened them, prosecutors confirmed to The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday.

During the weekend, photos of a narcomanta in which death threats were made against Cano, who is a singer of corridos, a musical genre often linked to cartel violence, and other artists from the Sonora region.

The banner appeared to be signed by Jalisco Matasalas, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel known as Los Chapitos that has spread terror in northern Mexico in recent months in a fight bloody for power. The band accused the singers of “financially helping” a rival band known as Salazares.

“This is the last time they will get a warning, just in time for them to stop the nonsense. Dedicate yourself to your thing, which is the profession of being musicians,” the banner read, “if you do not heed this warning you will be shot.”

The Sonora Prosecutor’s Office told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the banner had been hung in a school and that has opened an investigation into the threat.

Allan de la Rosa, spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, told the press that state protection was offered to the artists to avoid “an attack regarding the direct threat that appears in this banner.” He did not detail what that protection consists of. Cano’s communications team did not respond to a request for comment.

Corridos, ballads from northern Mexico, are a musical genre that has long glorified narco culture but has also shown the harsh reality faced by many Mexicans living under cartel violence.

That genre and regional music have entered a relative golden age as younger musicians like Cano and Peso Pluma have mixed the classical style with other genres like trap.

In the last five years the streaming of Mexican music has grown 400% on Spotify and in 2023 Peso Pluma surpassed Taylor Swift as the artist with the most views on YouTube.

These types of artists have long faced harsh criticism from authorities and threats from drug trafficking groups.

In 2023, Peso Pluma —which paid homage to drug lord Joaquín in songs El Chapo Guzmán—canceled a show in the border city of Tijuana after receiving threats from a rival cSinaloa cartel who warned him that if he came “it would be your last performance.”

Later, the Tijuana mayor’s office completely banned the performance of narcocorridos.

The threats against Cano come after an explosion of violence in Sinaloa and other northern Mexican states after the kidnapping and detention of capo Ismael May Zambada sparked an all-out war between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the one that allegedly threatened Cano. The cartels continue to leave mutilated corpses scattered throughout the state and kidnap people even in hospitals.