Slain musicians honored

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Two grupera musicians slain in Mexico in the last 13 months, in hits apparently related to organized crime, appear in the annual list of Grammy nominations announced this week. Valentin Elizalde was killed in November 2006 in the border city of Reynosa. And the body of Sergio Gomez, lead singer for the group K-Paz de la Sierra, was found this week dumped outside the city of Morelia, in the southern state of Michoacan.

Both Elizalde and K-Paz were nominated in the Best Banda Album category, Elizalde for ‘Lobo Domesticado’ (Domesticated Wolf) and K-Paz for ‘Conquistando Corazones’ (Conquering Hearts).

No one has been arrested or charged in either case.

Elizalde, who sang songs associated with the leader of the so-called Sinaloa cartel, was killed after a concert in territory associated with the drug ring’s northern rivals, the so-called Gulf cartel. But no such associations have been made (that I know of) with Gomez. Nevertheless, Gomez’s killing had all the hallmarks of an organized crime hit. Among other things, his body showed signs of torture.

Today there was news of the killing of another musician, Jose Luis Aquino, trumpet player for the group Los Conde. Why are so many musicians being slain? No one can say with certainty.

Posted by Héctor Tobar in Mexico City