Bodies of 5 missing musicians from the Mexican regional music group are found near Texas border mint

Ciudad Victoria, Mexico (AP) – The bodies of five musicians, members of a Mexican regional music group that disappeared, were found in the northern city of Reynosa along the Texas border, the authorities said on Thursday. The musicians of the Band Grupo Fugitivo, who played at parties and local dances in the region, have been reported missing since Sunday. Tamaulipas state prosecutors, who investigated their disappearance, said the men were abducted around 10pm that night while traveling in an SUV on their way to a venue where they were hired to play. Their bodies were found on the edge of Reynosa. Prosecutors said nine suspects are apparently part of a faction of the wave cartel, which has a strong presence in the city, has been arrested. The authorities could not immediately say why the men were killed, and did not deny reports by the local media that the bodies were burned. The genre they played – Mexican regional music, which includes a wide variety of styles, including Corridos and Cumbia – has gained a spotlight over the past few years, as it has entered a kind of international musical Renaissance. Young artists sometimes pay tribute to drug cartels leaders, who are often portrayed as Robin Hood figures. It was not immediately clear whether the group played such songs, or that the artists were merely the victim of the tremendous cartel violence that darkened the city. But other artists faced death threats by cartels, while others stripped their visas by the United States under accusations by the Trump administration that they glorified criminal violence. The last time the musicians were heard was the night they were kidnapped, when they told family members that they were on their way to the event. After that, nothing else was heard about them. Their disappearance caused a riot in Tamaulipas, a state that has long been darkened by cartel warfare. Their families reported the disappearance, called the public for support and people took up the streets in protest. On Wednesday, protesters blocked the international bridge connecting Reynosa and Pharr, Texas, who later went to a local cathedral to pray and make offers to the disappearance. Reynosa is a Mexican border city next to the United States and has been plagued by escalating violence since 2017 due to internal disputes among groups fighting for the control of drug trafficking, human smuggling and theft of fuel. This case follows another that took place in 2018, when armed men kidnapped two members of the music group “Los Norteños de Río Bravo”, whose bodies were later found on the federal highway that linked Reynosa to Río Bravo, Tamaulipas.