Mexican singer slain in hospital while recovering from gunshot wounds

By Mark Stevenson

ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:16 p.m. December 3, 2007

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican singer was shot to death in her hospital bed, police said Monday, the fourth time in a year assailants have killed performers of a popular northern music whose lyrics often focus on drug trafficking and violence.

Zayda Pena, 28, was shot in the heart Saturday in the city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, while recovering from a gunshot wound to the neck received on Friday, police detective Abel Infante said.

No suspects had been identified. Two people with Pena were killed in the Friday shooting.

Pena headed a band known as Zayda y los Culpables – “Zayda and the Guilty Ones.” One of her songs was “Tiro de Gracia,” a reference to an execution-style gunshot.

Also Monday, the newspaper El Universal reported that at least one member of the band “K-Paz de la Sierra” had been kidnapped on Saturday by armed men after leaving a performance in the western state of Michoacan.

Some musicians in northern Mexico write songs called “narco corridos,” which focus on the exploits of drug traffickers. Pena's songs were mostly romantic ballads.

Several “gruperos” have been slain in recent months.