The Sonora Prosecutor’s Office turns the case of death threats against the singer Natanael Cano to the FGR

The Sonora State Prosecutor’s Office has handed over the case regarding the alleged death threats against the singer to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) Natanael Cano and a group of local artists. The local authorities have delegated the investigation file as it is a crime “outside the common jurisdiction”, related to organized crime.

Natanael Cano, Tito Torbellino Jr. and Javier Rosas will receive protection from the local Prosecutor’s Office after their names appeared in a narcomanta last Sunday. The message demands that they stop supporting a local cartel under the risk of being murdered. The alleged threats, attributed to the Los Matasalas faction, appeared hanging outside a high school and are being investigated by authorities. The group, an ally of Los Chapitos in Sonora, has had strong confrontations in recent years with the Los Salazar cartel, with whom they dispute the trafficking of drugs, weapons and people in the region.

Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office has issued occupational protection measures for artistsalthough they have not filed any complaint with the authorities. “An investigation file has been initiated and protection measures have been issued that are legally appropriate for these people and we will be awaiting compliance with the support of different Public Security institutions to avoid an attack against these people,” said the Prosecutor of Sonora, Gustavo Rómulo Salas.

The accusations against the three singers, in addition to other musical groups from Hermosillo, Guaymas, Obregón and Navojoa, link them to the armed group of Los Salazar, for supposedly having supported them financially and with contacts in the Government. “Dedicate yourselves to what is yours, which is the profession of being musicians,” can be read in the threats.

The prosecutor has insisted that the investigation does not seek to restrict the musicians’ freedom of expression and that there is no open investigation against the singers, on the contrary, it seeks to protect their integrity. “We are not trying to restrict freedom of expression or musical expressions regardless of whether we may not agree with their content,” said prosecutor Salas. Natanael Cano is one of the pioneers of corridos tumbados in Mexico, a subgenre that emerged from mixing urban music with traditional corridos. His controversial lyrics usually talk about drugs, violence, and many of them even glorify drug trafficking.

This is not the first time that Cano has been involved in controversial matters. Last year, criminal proceedings began against him for trying to bribe the police when he was stopped for speeding. It is also not the first time that organized crime threatens artists linked to the world of narcoculture. In 2023 the singer Featherweight canceled several concerts after being threatened with death, supposedly by the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.