Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced last week that the U.S. has revoked the visas of the members of the Mexican corrido band Los Alegres del Barranco following a concert where they displayed the image of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes at their concert in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Cervantes is the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). He's known as "El Mencho."
"I'm a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn't mean that expression should be free of consequences," Landau posted on X. "A Mexican band, 'Los Alegres del Barranco,' portrayed images glorifying drug kingpin 'El Mencho' — head of the grotesquely violent CJNG cartel — at a recent concert in Mexico."
A BBC investigation discovered the results of some of El Mencho's handiwork.
Following a tip-off about the possible location of a mass grave, an activist group of relatives of some of Mexico's thousands of disappeared people went to the ranch, hoping to find some sign of their missing loved ones.
What they found was far worse: 200 pairs of shoes, hundreds of items of clothing, scores of suitcases and rucksacks, discarded after the owners themselves were apparently disposed of.
Even more chilling, several ovens and human bone fragments were found at the ranch.
"There were children's toys in there," says Luz Toscano, a member of the Buscadores Guerreros de Jalisco Collective.
News reports of the visa revocations for Los Alegres del Barranco only mention that the band displayed an image of El Mencho during a performance. The band also performed one of the cartel's favorites: the song "El Dueño del Palenque" ("The Owner of the Palenque"), which included lyrics praising him as a "war hero."
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio named the CJNG cartel a terrorist group. This new strategy to treat drug cartels as an invading foreign army is long overdue, although it doesn't materially change the facts on the ground. The U.S. will not invade Mexico, although Donald Trump hasn't ruled out the possibility of drone strikes against cartel leaders.
After the visa revocations, the band was apologetic.
“Through this message, Los Alegres del Barranco would like to offer our sincerest apologies for what happened,” the band wrote of the Guadalajara show. “As a musical group, it was never our intention to create controversy, much less to offend. We acknowledge that, as artists, we have a great responsibility to our audiences, especially to the new generations who follow our music.”
“We deeply regret that part of the show was perceived as offensive or inappropriate," the statement added.
The whole point of displaying the image and playing the song was to generate controversy. Saying otherwise is a lie and one more reason to make sure the band never sets foot in America again.
Mexico may tolerate the glorification of murderous terrorists who kill babies, but that may be changing.
Criticism of Los Alegres del Barranco came from both sides of the border, as there has been increased public outcry in Mexico about the praise found for crime bosses in regional Mexican music. One of the vocal critics of the band’s actions was Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum.
“That shouldn’t happen. It’s not right,” Sheinbaum said of the incident during a March 31 press conference. “You can’t apologize for violence nor for criminal groups.” The president also called for there to be an investigation of what occurred at the concert.
I don't think Sheinbaum would have been calling for an investigation into the glorification of violence during a pop concert if Kamala Harris had been elected president.
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