Featherweight and the apology for drug trafficking: the Viña del Mar Festival weighs the singer's participation in the closing of the event

Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), a state channel that is in charge of part of the management and transmission of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, in Chile, has reported that it is analyzing the participation of the Mexican singer Peso Pluma for the closing of the event, next March 1, after the complaint that the Chilean sociologist Alberto Mayol made in an opinion column in which he pointed out the young man as a “promoter of narco culture.” The president of the board of directors of TVN, Francisco Vidal, confirmed that he is already in communication with the executive director of the channel, Alfredo Ramírez, “to carefully examine the presence of the Mexican singer,” according to what he told the portal. BioBioChile.

Last Monday, the Chilean sociologist and academic Alberto Mayol published a column titled Featherweight in Viña: Sometimes you have to listen to the voice of the drug trafficker, In the portal BioBioChile, in which he encourages his readers to imagine a scenario in which a pedophile is invited to an event such as the Viña Festival—making it clear that this is an absurd hypothesis—and then contrast the presence of the Mexican Peso Pluma and what it means that a state channel like TVN and the management of the municipality of Viña del Mar embrace figures like him.

“Imagine, I ask you please, what a Viña Festival would be like that violates the minimum social pact. I'm not asking you to imagine a tragic festival, I'm not asking you for scenes of horror. I simply want you to speculate, to imagine, what an ominous festival would be like for you, a festival where the values ​​of the entire society completely collapse,” the text begins. Later, in what is now taking the form of a complaint, Mayol refers to the hiring that TVN confirmed of Peso Pluma to sing at the closing of the Festival, next March 1, and in which, he assures, “he will get on the stage (and we must all pretend that we are before an artist) a promoter of narco culture.”

The Viña del Mar Festival – whose edition will take place from February 25 to March 1 – is considered the largest and most recognized musical event in Latin America and, in addition, the longest – the first edition took place in 1960 and has only been canceled during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 and 2022—. It has reached approximate audiences of up to 250 million viewers, according to Festival figures, who watch the event always held during February on television. The closing of this festival also means a platform for artists of great international renown, it is usually the moment in which the most danceable and youthful numbers take place. Great figures of Mexican music have performed on that stage such as Juan Gabriel, Luis Miguel, Alejandro Fernández and Marco Antonio Solís, among others. And international artists have had their time there, such as Elton John, Miguel Bosé or Christina Aguilera. The presence of Peso Pluma is a unique recognition from the public and the organizers of the Quinta Vergara show.

Mayol's column has sparked a discussion that many anticipated, but that neither the organizers nor the media involved had put on the table. It was only a matter of a few hours for the reactions to start happening. The councilor of the municipality of Viña del Mar, René Lues Escobar, asked, through a letter addressed to the mayor of the municipality, to cancel the Mexican's contract to perform at the Festival: “Despite the fame of this musician, who Today he is considered one of the most popular artists in the music industry and among his millions of followers, I believe that it is not appropriate to use channels, resources and public spaces to promote this genre of music and songs linked to drug trafficking, because, as a society, “We should not romanticize criminal figures with their dramatic history of violence and blood,” he says in a writing made public in local media.

In a press conference, Lues Escobar justified his request before local media and compared the controversy with what happened in 2014, when the participation of the Mexican singer Lucero was canceled after a photograph was made public in which she appeared with her partner on a day of hunting and posing next to the carcass of an ibex.

This Wednesday, in an interview with BioBioChile, Francisco Vidal confirmed that after Mayol's column he had spoken with the executive director of TVN to “corroborate or not the background information” of what was stated in that text: “I don't want to get ahead of anything, but for me the opinion of the columnist,” he said.

The director of the state channel assured that there are also arguments that defend the international recognition of Featherweight, but that for him it is not important. “In my opinion, a public channel, if the complaint is proven, should not have a singer on its festival schedule who promotes gangs and drug trafficking, it's that simple. He does not agree with anyone with common sense,” he concluded.

“When will Chile have paid so that millions of Chileans can learn about and admire the narco culture? A lot of money, by the way,” Alberto Mayol continues in his text. “That's right, they can tell us (because they already said it) that this is the true essence of Mexico. What a thing. Because Mexican corridos, of epic power, have been a cultural bastion of commemorating milestones such as Mexican independence and its revolution. And it turns out that today the corridos migrate to the epic of drug trafficking. And that is the true essence of Mexico? This invitation is already an insult to Chileans. But insulting Mexicans is an incomprehensible excess,” he says.

So far the municipality of Viña del Mar, headed by Mayor Macarena Ripamonti, representative of the Frente Amplio, the coalition of leftist President Gabriel Boric, has not provided a response to the criticisms of the sociologist and the councilor. Channel 13, the private television station that together with the state TVN participates in the organization of the Festival, has also not taken a position regarding the controversy.

Chile faces a serious security crisis, with an increase in violent crimes such as homicides by firearm. Call propagation narcoculture among the young people of the South American country has been a topic of debate among the authorities. On December 30, three people—including a 13-year-old girl—were murdered in a shooting that occurred during the recording of a music video by a local urban artist in the town of La Victoria, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile. .

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