A vacant lot, one survivor and a short path to death for the Mexican band Grupo Fugitivo

Carlos arrived late, and it saved his life. He was supposed to meet on Sunday night, May 25, with the rest of the band members of Grupo Fugitivo for a gig in the Riberas del Río neighborhood of Reynosa, a city near the border with Texas. However, according to Rubén Isaac, a relative of one of the five murdered musicians, when he showed up at the supposed venue, all he found was a vacant lot. He was then unable to contact the group, so he chose to return home. From the city of Reynosa, where they were last seen, to the clandestine garbage dump where five bodies were found, there are barely 7.5 miles (12 km).

The case has shaken the border state of Tamaulipas. So far, the investigation points to a faction of the Gulf Cartel known as Los Metro, nine of whose members have been arrested. Carlos has not given further signs of life, but people close to the singer have told the press that “he is safe.” Although the Prosecutor’s Office has not yet confirmed the motives for the five murders, search groups, relatives and sources in Reynosa believe that the killings were premeditated and that the concert was merely a pretext.

According to relatives, the band, which played at weddings and parties, had a gig in the vicinity of Riberas de Rancho Grande, north of the city. That day, they showed up at Bar La Chinita. The authorities have found traces of blood inside the premises and had them analyzed, according to the ex-wife of one of the members of the band, which played Mexican regional music.

According to the Tamaulipas Prosecutor’s Office, the five musicians were abducted around 10:00 p.m. on May 25 as they were traveling to a private event in the Riberas del Río neighborhood, on the Mexican side of the border between Tamaulipas and Texas. “They were asked to play in a thatched palapa, but there was only a vacant lot,” a relative told the local press. Soon after, the musicians’ relatives reported receiving ransom demands.

It was in that same region where the last images of the Grupo Fugitivo were recorded. In a video shared through his official Facebook account, Vázquez, the other vocalist, sang the song Cruzando el puente (Crossing the bridge), by Los Cadetes de Linares, accompanied by Nemesio Durán, Víctor Garza, José Francisco Morales, and Livan Solís de la Rosa, who served as the band’s manager. In another post from that day, the group can be seen in a series of photos with the following text: “See you soon in McAllen, Texas. Pure Fugitive, crossing borders (Just kidding, it’s just the photo on the Mexican side, but let’s hope one day we can reach the US).”

It was not until Tuesday, May 27, that the authorities in Tamaulipas set out to find the five men. The next day, the vehicle in which they’d been traveling was discovered in the La Cañada neighborhood, a little under four miles from where they were last seen, with “signs of vandalism” aimed at peeling off the car stickers that identified the band. Meanwhile, another vehicle carrying their instruments and equipment was found in the vicinity of the Pharr-Reynosa international bridge, another border crossing to the U.S.

The Prosecutor’s Office has revealed that the band members were taken to the Aquiles Serdán neighborhood where, according to the authorities, “there are elements that allow us to presume that it is the place where their lives were taken.” The property where the forensic investigations are being carried out is, according to the local press, “a former garbage dump removed from the metropolitan area.”

Until May 28, the band members’ families, friends and colleagues maintained hopes of being able to find the five musicians alive. Some staged a two-day protest complete with a road block closing access to the Pharr-Reynosa international bridge; others placed candles in front of the Cathedral of Guadalupe, in the center of the city. There was even a song: “Today Reynosa is sad for the boys of Grupo Fugitivo… Today Reynosa cries and asks God to bring these boys home alive.”

But on the night of May 28, local media reported that five charred bodies had been found on the Aquiles Serdán property. The finding was confirmed the next morning by the Tamaulipas Security Spokesman. No details have been provided about the identity of the five bodies yet.

While the Tamaulipas State Prosecutor gave his press conference on the findings of the case in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital, the relatives protested outside the Prosecutor’s Office in Reynosa. They are convinced that they can still find their loved ones alive and said that they need DNA evidence to confirm that the recently found bodies are those of their loved ones.

The tragedy is just another chapter in the book of Mexico’s unbridled violence – this time in the state of Tamaulipas. Investigators are still working on the motive for the murders.

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