Mexican pop singer gunned down

Valentin Elizalde and two others are killed leaving a concert. It's another apparent gangland ambush as drug cartels claim more victims.
By Héctor Tobar, Times Staff Writer
November 26, 2006

MEXICO CITY — A popular singer, his manager and his driver were gunned down Saturday in an ambush after a concert in the border city of Reynosa in an apparent gangland hit, as unabated drug-related violence continued across Mexico.

The singer, 27-year-old Valentin Elizalde, was killed about 20 minutes after he performed at a fair. Elizalde was a mainstay of the accordion-based norteno music variously known as banda or grupero, and was also known as "the Golden Rooster."

According to media reports, two vehicles chased Elizalde's black Suburban as he left the concert and opened fire with automatic weapons before dozens of witnesses. As many as 70 spent cartridges were found on the street around Elizalde's SUV. According to media reports, Elizalde was hit as many as eight times.


He also penned lyrics honoring one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Last year, he sang one of his narcocorridos, ballads honoring the exploits of drug dealers, to a crowd of more than 3,000 convicts at the Puente Grande prison in the central state of Jalisco.

Guzman escaped from a neighboring prison in 2001 and remains at large.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the continuing war among competing cartels and the police over Mexico's lucrative trade in illicit drugs, according to media reports.