K-Paz De La Sierra News

Playing popular dance music in Mexico has become an increasingly deadly proposition, with a string of murders striking regional Mexican acts.

In particular, the December kidnapping and murder of Sergio Gomez, lead singer of popular duranguense group K-Paz de la Sierra, highlights artists' need for security when playing Mexico's lucrative dance circuit of rural towns and municipalities.

Despite the dangers, few managers and artists are reluctant to cut Mexican tours short, particularly now that the regional Mexican touring circuit in the United States is suffering from lower attendance caused by economic and immigration concerns.

"The touring market is more lucrative in Mexico than in the United States," said one record executive, who, like most people interviewed for this article, did not want to be identified. "The production costs here (in the States) are much higher, and the venue capacities are smaller, so there's less money to go around for a band with lots of members."

But promoters agree that touring Mexico, by definition, is a riskier proposition simply because there is more crime.

BRUTAL MEASURES

"There is a lot of violence in Mexico. You need to have certain precautions," one promoter said. "But even if you do, when they're going to get you, they're going to get you, no matter how careful you are. I sometimes hear the groups saying, 'We don't know when it's going to be our turn."'

That was the rationale for duranguense group Patrulla 81 to cancel some December dates in Michoacan.

"We could have all the security in the world, and even then, people could attack us," Patrulla 81 leader Jose Angel Medina said at the time. "We canceled dates in regions we considered risky."

But there have been few other cancellations, in part because the generalized sentiment is that the brutality of the recent murders concerns personal grievances rather than an attack on music groups in general. Los Conde trumpet player Jose Luis Aquino was found beaten to death with a plastic bag over his head. Zayda y Los Culpables lead singer Zayda Pena was shot in a motel room but survived the murder attempt, only to be finished off by her killers as she was recovering in the hospital.

The most brazen murder was that of Gomez. As the lead singer of K-Paz de la Sierra, he was a widely recognized, marquee artist; indeed, his murder happened the same week K-Paz was nominated for a Grammy Award. Gomez was with Victor Hugo Sanchez and Javier Rivera -- respectively, K-Paz's Mexico- and U.S.-based promoters -- when they were intercepted by at least 10 vans and kidnapped as they left a performance at the Estadio Morelos in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia. The two promoters were freed after two hours in captivity. But Gomez's strangled, tortured and burned body was discovered on a highway near Morelia.

'YOU DON'T KNOW WHO'S WHO'

The viciousness of Gomez's and Pena's murders have all the makings of a mob killing, but neither of them had reported links to organized crime. Gomez, in particular, didn't even sing narcocorridos, the popular songs often based on mob lore.

But some in the industry speculate that both killings were the result of dangerous liaisons. "You're a big act, you play in these popular dances, and all these little girls are always after you," one promoter said. "The problem is, you don't know who's who. You might be messing with the wrong person."

Gomez reportedly was threatened before the December 2 show, and received threats before a scheduled show at the same venue in 2006, which he decided not to perform.

Since November 2006, when banda singer Valentin Elizalde was gunned down after a show, more than 10 other artists have been murdered in Mexico. Mexican authorities have yet to indict anyone for the string of killings.

The seeming impunity has only added credence to what many promoters say privately: That in certain regions, local strongmen charge a "tax" for performing. It's a fee that promoters pay quietly, chalking it up to the cost of doing business in Mexico.

And yet, some acts are reluctant to cut back on touring now that record sales are down, because they need the income more than ever.

"You do have to be careful -- and be courteous," one promoter said, "with your audience and with everyone in general."

Reuters/Billboard