Bodies found in Mexico may be those of missing band

MEXICO CITY -- Bodies found dumped in a well in northeastern Mexico may be those of the 18 musicians and staff of a band that went missing after a Thursday night performance, authorities said.

The members of Kombo Kolombia were reported missing Friday by family members who said they lost contact with the group after it performed at a bar along a highway about 30 miles north of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon state.

On Monday, Gov. Rodrigo Medina told reporters that early signs indicated the bodies discovered the day before in the community of Mina are probably the missing members of Kombo Kolombia. Medina said four bodies had so far been positively identified as members of the band but that authorities were holding off on confirming that the entire group was found until each victim was accounted for.

Jesus Valencia, a Nuevo Leon state spokesman, told The Times that 18 bodies were found in a well with a water wheel at an abandoned ranch near the group’s last known whereabouts, a bar called La Carreta, where the band played Thursday night.

After the band’s performance, 10 armed men entered the bar and ordered Kombo Kolombia and their staff into waiting vehicles, Valencia said. One of the members managed to escape after the kidnapping and told authorities he watched as band mates were beaten and interrogated. The captors then began executing the musicians, the witness told officials.

His identity was not released, but the spokesman said the musician was under state guard and cooperating with the investigation.

News reports said eight bodies had been pulled out by noon Monday, some wearing clothing described as similar to the band’s costumes, and showing signs of shooting injuries and torture.

At least one musician in the group was a Colombian national, authorities said, but no other details were provided.

Forensic investigators were on the scene and family members were providing DNA samples to help with identification of the bodies. There were no details on who kidnapped the band or why it might have been targeted.

“We assume their killers are related to some kind of criminal group,” Valencia said. “They could have played a song someone did not like or said something someone did not like. We don’t know.”

Kombo Kolombia was known to play a style of Colombian music called vallenato, which is related to the imported cumbia genre that is widely popular in Monterrey and now considered a staple of the region’s culture. The band was young and did not have a national profile in a country where many large musical groups earn a living playing at festivals, dance halls, and parties in the countryside.

According to reports, Kombo Kolombia was a fixture on the nightclub scene in Monterrey, but was not known to play the popular narcocorrido ballads that glorify the exploits of drug lords. Nuevo Leon is one of the most violent states in Mexico, as the Sinaloa and Zetas cartels and their allies fight for dominance of key trafficking routes north to the U.S. border.

ALSO:

Egypt protests continue; opposition rejects talks with Morsi

Iran arrests more than a dozen journalists

Amid controversy, Israel issues new birth-control guidelines