Sawt Falasteen - Mexican president opposes ban on songs glorifying drug cartels

Luis R. Conriquez was forced to flee a stage over the weekend when fans rioted in response to his announcement that he was not allowed to sing such songs.

Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference that her government was opposed to censorship.

"We are not banning a musical genre. That would be absurd. What we are proposing is that the lyrics not glorify drugs, violence, violence against women, or viewing a woman as a sexual object," she said.

Sheinbaum said her government wanted to build a "social consensus that violence should not be glorified," not just in songs but also in television series.

Several Mexican states have banned "narcocorridos" and variants that often celebrate the exploits of the country's infamous drug traffickers.

Chaos erupted early Saturday in the city of Texcoco, 25 kilometers (15 miles) outside Mexico City, when Conriquez told the crowd that he could not sing his popular songs praising leaders of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel.

Booing soon escalated into objects and beer being thrown at the singer and his band on stage, which was later invaded by rioters who damaged musical equipment.

Seeking to counter the popularity of narcocorridos among young people in Mexico and the United States, Sheinbaum recently launched a music contest "for peace and against addictions."

Spiraling criminal violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has seen around 480,000 people murdered in Mexico since the government declared war on cartels in 2006.

R.Halabi--SF-PST