Peso Pluma’s upcoming performance at the 2024 Festival de Viña del Mar in Chile is being challenged. On Jan. 8, a Chilean sociologist wrote an opinion piece on why the Mexican superstar shouldn’t perform. Now, some Chilean politicians are being vocal on whether or not he should participate in the annual festival that will take place at the Quinta Vergara amphitheater in Viña del Mar, Chile, from Feb. 25 to March 1.
The Chilean socialist Alberto Mayol wrote an opinion column expressing why La Doble P shouldn’t be part of the annual televised event. He claims that Peso Pluma “promotes narco culture” and equates it to having a performer who promotes pedophilia.
In the column, he says that the event will have a full house, which will result in some naive audiences “believing anything that is said” and that narcoculture “is in style” and should be praised and accepted. He also says that there could be people in the audience who see their own aspirations of “dreams of money greatness,” guns, and risk portrayed by their favorite star on stage. He also says that the invite of a narco-corrido singer is an “insult” to Chileans and Mexicans, since corridos started as folk songs of the Mexican revolution.
Upon reading this opinion column, Viña del Mar councilman René Lues Escobar asked the municipality’s mayor to cancel Peso Pluma’s performance. He wrote that the piece made him reflect on La Doble P’s music and lyrics, which he describes as “explicit justification of violence, armed clashes, organized crime, and corruption, drug trafficking, and drug cartels.” He notes that he can’t stay silent and backs Mayol’s opinion about not normalizing drug trafficking and violence in a public institution. Viña del Mar festival is organized and funded by the municipality of Viña del Mar.
Moreover, according to CNN Chile, the chairman of the board of directors of Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), Francisco Vidal – the television network where the festival will stream – is “evaluating” Peso Pluma’s participation. The outlet also reports that the Minister of Interior and Public Security of Chile, Carolina Tohá, said that as “authorities committed to security,” they are concerned about the reach that these songs that “promote the narco culture and that also often promote a very derogatory view of women and reproduce very discriminatory paradigms in terms of sexism” have.
She also noted that while every event has the right to invite any artist of their choosing, uninviting an artist is not censorship. “When an artist is invited, [the festival] wants to promote them, and sometimes there are artists that we wouldn’t want to promote, especially those behind narco culture,” she said.
Although there’s no official news if Peso Pluma will be dropped by the festival, during a recent press conference, Escobar pointed out that in 2014, Lucero canceled her Viña del Mar appearance due to a photo scandal.
Chile is not the only Latin American country being vocal against corridos tumbados. In Mexico, Tijuana banned the genre. Not only that, but the genre is often criticized by the president of Mexico.