Vega’s manager, Ana Luisa Gomez, says her client wasn’t supported by any cartels. Many of the casualties of Mexico’s war against the country’s drug cartels have been innocent victims without ties to criminal elements. “I think that would show that artists are not that afraid to go there,” Windish says. The show was organized by Brooklyn-based promoter Todd Patrick. Windish also had 12 artists at Monterrey’s MtyMx festival in March, despite reports of transportation problems and cancellations.
Windish Agency president Tom Windish, who represents acts including Animal Collective and Crystal Castles, says he has booked 55 shows in Mexico this year, including in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tijuana and Playa del Carmen. Such entanglements don’t seem to afflict international artists. Segura says he isn’t letting his clients play private parties for the time being because “you don’t know who can show up and start shooting.” There are persistent rumors, for example, of artists being “sponsored” by drug lords who may commission a song in their honor, ask an artist to play at a private party or go as far as bankrolling entire marketing campaigns. Still, sources say, some artists have become ensnared in one way or another with organized crime. Industry sources say artists have learned to steer clear of regions in Mexico that have been particularly plagued by violence. His next album, “Millonario de Amor,” is due July 20 on Disa Records, an imprint of Universal Music Latin Entertainment. Of the dozen-plus Mexican artists who have been killed since the 2006 murder of banda icon Valentin Elizalde, most haven’t enjoyed the international success of Vega, who had scored five top 10 singles on Billboard’s regional Mexican airplay chart.
#PIKA DIENTES DE CABORCA PROFESSIONAL#
Vega’s death marked the highest-profile killing of a professional musician in Mexico since 2007, when K-Paz de la Sierra leader Sergio Gomez was kidnapped and strangled after a performance in Michoacan state. Vega’s murder was followed by the June 28 assassination of Rodolfo Torre Cantu, the leading candidate for governor in the border state of Tamaulipas, which sent shockwaves through the Mexican political establishment. Mexico’s unrelenting wave of violence struck the music business again June 26, when Mexican star Sergio “El Shaka” Vega was gunned down as he drove to a concert in the western state of Sinaloa. “It makes me sad that there’s no control,” Segura says. Shortly thereafter, the promoter was killed. “He said, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t go’” because of threats of violence at the event, Segura recalls.īut just as he was about to call the show’s promoter to cancel, the promoter’s wife called Segura to say her husband had been kidnapped by a drug-trafficking gang after he refused to pay them for the right to put on the show. MIAMI/LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Mexican quintet Los Pikadientes de Caborca was booked to play a show in Mexico’s Jalisco state last year when the band’s manager, Jose Juan Segura, ran into an acquaintance.
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