Freemuse Defending Artistic Freedom
| The congress of Sinaloa, one of Mexico’s 31 states, has banned the performance, interpretation and reproduction of narcocorridos — songs that glorify the drug trade and trafficking — in restaurants, nightclubs and bars This was reported by La Jornada correspondent Javier Valdez Cardenas on 18 May 2011 and by CNN and Fox News the following day. The ban is supposed to reduce violence and prevent crime in nightclubs and bars, such as the incident on 8 March 2011, when a group of armed men came to Antares nightclub, located in the ‘golden zone’ of Mazatlán, and fired at the audience. The attack left six dead and 20 wounded. Sinaloa is part of Mexico’s drug-trafficking golden triangle along with the neighboring states of Durango and Chihuahua and is considered the cradle of the country’s most notorious capos. National security spokesman Alejandro Poire said silencing the songs is a key part of Mexico’s ‘cultural fight’ against violence. “The rhythm they dance to is that of the violence that harms many families in Mexico,” Alejandro Poire wrote in a blog post on an official government website. “It is not a matter of censorship because it isn’t a moral matter; it is a matter of legality and stopping the growth of the culture of indifference and violence,” he said. Opposite effect “It is proven that there is nothing that captivates more than the forbidden. This is well-known in social psychology. I fear that the ban will cultivate people’s curiosity to know what is prohibited,” the professor said. “The government is unfairly targeting the songs rather than dealing with crime,” the owner of a night club in the state capital of Culiacan was quoted as saying. “We live in a state and a city where this music is played and the people like it,” said the night club owner, who declined to give his name due to security concerns. “There are people that are doing bad things, and they are not going to stop doing them because we listen to cumbia or disco,” he said.
|
 Mexico 
|
|
|
| Sources In Sight – 20 May 2011: ‘Mexican State Bans Narcocorridos’ CNN – 20 May 2011: ‘Mexican officials target drug ballads’ La Jornada – 19 May 2011: ‘Restaurantes y bares de Sinaloa no podr
|
||||||||||||
