Since 1992, dozens of Mexican folk musicians have been executed in cold blood, mainly throughout the northern regions of Mexico.
Narcocorrido or "drug ballad," is a popular sub-genre of Mexican folk music where song lyrics glorify the real-life exploits of drug traffickers.
Drug traffickers will sometimes commission a musician, for tens of thousands of dollars, to sing a narcocorrido about them in order to "immortalize" themselves.
The downside to the narcocorrido is that the musician, while praising some in the drug game, is bound to offend others.
The Mexican folk musician murders are part of a much bigger problem in Mexico. Drug violence in Mexico increased during Felipe Calderon's presidency. According to federal reports, between 2007 and 2011, the drug war resulted in at least 60,000 casualties. It is important to note that these figures are questionably low since in Mexico "fewer than 10 percent of all crimes are investigated."
Rosalino "Chalino" Sanchez
Chalino was one of the first prominent narcocorrido singers in both Mexico and the United States. On Jan. 20, 1992, he was thrust into the national spotlight after a patron shot him at a nightclub in Coachella, Calif. Chalino survived the shooting. His shooter, however, was shot in the mouth and died. After gaining notoriety from the incident, Chalino's music finally began to receive airtime on Spanish-language radio.
On May 15, 1992, Chalino played a concert in his hometown of Culiacan in Sinaloa, Mexico. After the concert, he drove away from the venue with his entourage before being pulled over by a group of armed men with police identification. They asked him to get into their car so they could take him to see the commandante. Chalino obliged and that was the last time he was seen alive. The next day, his body was found in a ditch, blindfolded with rope marks around his wrists. He had two bullet holes in the back of his head.
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