The murdered son of a state lawmaker in Jalisco was a singer and composer of narcocorridos, a genre that glorifies and pays tribute to narcos.
Some of the songs by Mario Alberto Lemus Romero, which were uploaded to YouTube, were dedicated to the alleged leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.
Lemus, 18, son of Morena Deputy Arturo Lemus Herrera, was killed Sunday by four men in a cemetery in Zapopan, Jalisco, 15 kilometers from the center of Guadalajara. He was declared dead at the scene by emergency personnel.
His brother, who witnessed the attack, suffered a nervous breakdown.
The song El Imperio del Árabe 7-7, or The Arab’s Empire 7-7, on which Lemus is a featured vocalist with the band Banda Puro Grullo, was uploaded to YouTube on September 5 and has had more than 16,000 views. A photo of Oseguera appears as a backdrop to the video, and references are made to him within the song.
The song title and the name of Lemus’ former band, Mario Lemus y Su Código 7, also make oblique references to José Luis Gutiérrez Valencia, a CJNG operative who was known by the alias 7-7.
In the song El Grande or The Great, Lemus pays tribute to Gutiérrez, who died in a shootout in 2017, singing, “With respect … there will never be another one like you.”
In the wake of the murder, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez extended his condolences to the Morena deputy.
“I want to express my condolences to Deputy Arturo Lemus Herrera for the cowardly murder of his son Mario. I know there are no words for these moments of pain. I have instructed the prosecutor’s office not to pause the investigations until the facts are clarified and those responsible are found,” he said in a tweet.
With reports from Milenio and El Universal
