First Trump targeted Mexico’s drug cartels. Now it’s the musicians who sing about them

Bands in Mexico are self-censoring their ballads about the drug underworld out of fear of being blocked from touring the US, in a development that experts say raises troubling questions about free speech in America.

It’s Saturday night at a rooftop bar in downtown Atlanta, and the band Orden Activa is about to launch into a Mexican ballad. What seemed like a shy and reserved audience suddenly transforms as the opening chords of the trotting polka begin. The crowd rises to its feet and sings in Spanish as the dance floor dissolves into a sea of cowboy hats: “I’m the ruler of the roostersOf the Jalisco cartel.I’ve got fighting cocksWho duel for my crew.” With their gently bobbing heads, matching leather jackets and knowing smiles, their act hardly screams controversy – or at least not to the casual observer. Yet last month, a group that sang the very same song – “El del Palenque” (“He of the Cockfighting Arena”) – was barred from the United States in an unprecedented move that critics say raises troubling questions about free speech in America. Their transgression, according to the State Department? “Glorifying (a) drug kingpin.”