5 missing musicians found near the border between the United States in Mexico; supposed members of the arrested poster

The bodies of five musicians, members of a Mexican regional music group that had disappeared, were found in the city of northern Reynosa along the Texas borderthe authorities said on Thursday.

The musicians of the Fugitive Group band, which played at parties and local dances in the region, had been reported as missing since Sunday.

The prosecutors of the state of Tamaulipas, who had been investigating their disappearance, said the men were kidnapped around 10 pm that night while traveling in a SUV on the way to a place where they were hired to play. Their bodies were found outside Reynosa. Prosecutors said that nine suspects are believed to be part of a faction of the Gulf posterwhich has a strong presence in the city, has been arrested.

The authorities could not immediately say why the men were killed, and did not deny the reports of the local media that the bodies had been burned.

Family members reported that they received rescue demands for musicians, between 20 and 40 years. The band was hired to organize a concert, but arrived to find a vacancy, according to family members.

The genre they played: Mexican regional music, which encapsulates a wide range of styles that include rabid And Cumbia: In recent years he has won the center of attention, since he has entered a kind of international musical rebirth. Young artists sometimes pay tribute to drug cartels, often portrayed as Robin Hood figures.

It was not clear immediately if the group played such songs or if the artists were simply victims of unbridled poster violence that has eclipsed the city. But other artists have faced death threats, while others have had their Stripped visas for the United States under accusations of the Trump administration that they were glorifying criminal violence.

The last time the musicians of the Fugitive Group band were heard was the night they were kidnapped, when they told the family members who were going to the event. After that, nothing more was heard of them.

His disappearance caused a uproar in Tamaulipas, an eclipsed state by the poster war. Their families reported that the disappearances requested public support and people took to the streets in protest.

On Wednesday, the protesters blocked the international bridge that connects Reynosa and Pharr, Texas, then went to a local cathedral to pray and make offerings to the disappeared.

Reynosa is a Mexican border city adjacent to the United States and has been plagued by growing violence since 2017 due to internal disputes between groups that compete for drug trafficking control, human smuggling and fuel theft.

Musicians are sometimes trapped in the cartel grass wars

Mexican musicians have been previously attacked by criminal groups that pay them to compose and perform songs that glorify the feats of their leaders.

Such artists often live very close to their drug sponsors, sometimes they can be trapped in gang’s grass battles.

“Narcocorridos” are a controversial subgenre 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”, which seek to counteract the popularity of music among young people in Mexico and the United States.

Several regions in the country have banned “narcocorridos”, causing a Recent disturbances During a concert after a singer refused to perform some of his most popular songs.

In April, the United States Department of State revoked the visas of the members of a Mexican band after projecting the face of a drug poster head on a large screen during an performance in the western state of Jalisco. The Undersecretary of State of the United States, Christopher Landau, who was ambassador of the United States in Mexico during the first Trump administration, said on social networks that the work and tourism visas of the members of the cheerful of the ravine were revoked.

The controversy broke out at the end of March when the face of Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes Cape Over Flames was projected behind the band, originally from Sinaloa, during the concert.

Oseguera is the leader of the New Generation of Jalisco, which has been connected with a ranch, according to the authorities. Train posters recruits And possibly getting rid of bodies in Jalisco, where search engines found fragments of human bones, lots of clothing and shoes. The United States government has offered a $ 15 million reward for information that leads to the capture of Oseguera. In November, his son -in -law was Arrested in California After US officials say he pretended his own death to “live a luxury life” north of the border.

The Jalisco poster is among other criminal groups in Mexico that have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

While the image was received by applause during the concert, Jalisco’s prosecutors quickly announced that they were summoning the band to testify in an investigation into whether they were promoting violence, a crime that could result in a penalty of up to six months in prison.

In January of this year, it was reported that a small plane had dropped pamphlets in a city in the northwest that threatened about 20 musical artists and influential people for alleged treatment with a faction at war of the Sinaloa drug poster.

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 that connects Reynosa with Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas.

In 2013, 17 musicians from the Kombo Kolombia group were executed by alleged members of the poster in the Northeast state of Nuevo León, supposedly due to the links with a rival gang.

Agance France-Presse contributed to this report.

• Drug posters
• Mexico
• Sign