Absurd Reality:

DRUG WARS REWRITING THE RULES IN MEXICO

The news that popular banda musician Valentin Elizalde was gunned
down Saturday in Mexico near the Reynosa fairgrounds stunned many
residents on both sides of the border. The 27-year-old's black
Suburban was sprayed with more than 70 bullets; also killed were his
driver and manager - all just minutes after he performed at the annual fair.

Such is the surreal world of the Mexican drug trade, a world in which
newspapers are silenced by gunfire and a drug cartel takes out
advertising blaming its rivals for the mayhem.

The traffickers don't seem the least bit put off by increased federal
efforts and more soldiers on the ground. After all, they've succeeded
in pressuring newspapers to stop investigative coverage of cartels
and to give little attention to drug-related violence. And when
stories aren't reported in the Mexican press, it's even more
difficult for the media in the U.S. to know what's really going on
just across the border.

Attacks against Mexican reporters are routine. In February, at least
three masked gunmen barged into Nuevo Laredo's El Manana newsroom and
unloaded 30 rounds and a hand grenade, injuring the police reporter.
Reporting on the cartels may be scarce, but not so with advertising.
Just days before Mr. Elizalde's death, The Family, a group believed
to be associated with the Tamaulipas-based Gulf drug cartel, took out
a half-page ad in Michoacan newspapers, blaming rival cartels for all
the bloodshed. Mr. Elizalde was himself no stranger to the drug
world, with songs detailing the bloodshed of innocent lives and
immortalizing one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords, Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman of the Sinaloa cartel, still on the run after his 2001
prison escape. Probably no coincidence that the singer was killed on
rival Gulf cartel turf.

It's increasingly difficult to make sense of what's going on in
Mexico, but the drug cartel exploits are certainly terrorizing top
law enforcement officials. As one of them recently told a reporter
from the San Antonio Express-News when questioned about the Elizalde
death: "I don't want to say. I like my life too much. You should, too."

SAMPLE LYRICS From Valentin Elizalde's song "Regresan Los Mafiosos,"
about drug gangs, with the English translation:

Antes nomas se paseaban En unos carros del ano.

Hoy tan solo se pelean Nada mas por unos gramos.

Y solamente Dios sabe Lo que ahorita esta pasando.

Before they just paraded In their brand new cars.

Now they only fight For a few grams.

And only God knows What's really going on right now.