Mexican singer who wrote songs for drug merchants gets death threats

Peso Pluma performs onstage during the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on Sept. 12, 2023, in Newark, New Jersey. Pluma on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, canceled a planned upcoming concert in Tijuana after a drug cartel allegedly threatened to kill him if he performed in the crime-plagued border city. MIKE COPPOLA / Getty Images via AFP

MEXICO CITY—Mexican singer Peso Pluma on Wednesday, Sept. 20, canceled a planned upcoming concert in Tijuana after a drug cartel allegedly threatened to kill him if he performed in the crime-plagued border city.

“Our goal is to protect the fans and the team. For the safety of everyone involved we will cancel our show in Tijuana,” the artist said in a message on his production company’s Instagram account.

“Thank you very much to all our fans for understanding. We love you,” added the 24-year-old behind the hit “Ella Baila Sola,” who admits to having written songs at the request of drug traffickers.

READ: Rising singer Peso Pluma rides Mexican music’s wave of success

Tijuana authorities said last week that four signs had been put up in the city just south of San Diego, in the US state of California, threatening to murder the singer if he performed there on Oct. 14.

One was signed with the initials “CJNG”—the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel—according to images published by local media.

In at least one of his songs, Peso Pluma shouts out a different gang—infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel.

Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero told local media Tuesday that a person detained over the threats had been released and there was no proof that it was the work of organized crime.  /ra