A rainy voice combined with the soft strings of a guitar narrate the pain of a life that was soon cut short. Like other narcocorridos – a kind of folk song that glorifies drug lords – the lyrics come to a violent end: “There are witnesses to how he was executed,” the ballad proclaims. But unlike other narcocorridos, this is proof of the death of a spider monkey who regularly wore a vest with a tailored camo jacket. The monkey – referred to online as “El Chango” or “the capital” in Spanish, and also known as the Sicario monkey – was the pet of a member of La Familia Michoacana, a notorious cartel in Mexico. And its apparent owner was killed on June 14 during a confrontation between state security forces and an organized crime group in Texcaltitlán, according to the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Mexico. La Familia Michoacana emerged in the 1980s after splitting from the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico’s oldest criminal organizations. The group, considered one of the country’s top methamphetamine exporters, was known for its overtly brutal tactics. In 2006, for example, they threw five severed heads on the track of a nightclub with the message “Know that this is divine justice.” While La Familia has been in decline since the death of its leader in 2014 and internal strife, it is still embroiled in violent acts, authorities say. In March 2021, prosecutors claim, the team was responsible for an ambush that killed more than a dozen officers, El País reported. Violent criminal gangs erode Mexican power and claim more territory Following last week’s shooting spree – which left 11 dead, three injured and seven arrested by police – photos of the bloody scene have been circulating on the internet. In a country plunged into a deeper crisis of violence that has displaced thousands, images of bullet-riddled corpses and dozens of military-quality weapons seized by the authorities are nothing new. However, one caused a frenzy on social media: the monkey’s body, dressed in its tiny vest, lying on top of a dead man’s chest in an obvious embrace. For some, it was the contrast of a cute monkey adorned with narcotics. For others, it was outrageous that an endangered species was kept as a pet. But most of all, it was the feeling that an innocent being had been killed in a crossfire that sparked myriad tributes, newspaper headlines and even a song. Drug baron Pablo Escobar smuggled hippos to Colombia. Those in charge are now sterilizing the invasive species. The ballad places El Chango in the ranks of notable drugs – such as Sinaloa Cartel’s Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán – whose achievements have long been narrated through music. “Life is so short and it was not the monkey’s turn to die,” say the song’s lyrics, which are widely shared on Twitter. “Someone stole his story because he came here to triumph and shine in so many things.” The little one, the song mourns, is “on his way to paradise, but he left us a legacy”. It is not clear what this legacy is, but El Chango seems to be the first animal to be mentioned in a narco-corrida – a style of music usually intended for stories of heavy drugs and their betrayals, arrests and confrontations.
