The Viña del Mar Festival has commented on the controversy caused by the presence of the Mexican featherweight at the closing of the event next March 1st. He did so by confirming that the poster will continue, praising the singer's career and responding to the discussion with a statement in which he assured that he would not suffer any censorship or discrimination: “Peso Pluma has more than 55 a month .5 million listeners.” and is the outstanding artist of 2023 at the latest and most prestigious international awards (…). Prominent television networks in the US, Europe and across America have given space to his talent,” they wrote in a statement. The discussion also escalated with the bill proposed by a representative of the Democratic Party, which aims to ban the participation of artists who promote drug trafficking and other criminal activities in major events financed with public funds.
The festival's statement released this Thursday evening in response to the controversy that arose following the publication of an opinion column by the sociologist Alberto Mayol, settled this discussion with a call for inclusion: “The largest Latin American festival in the world celebrates the diversity of all artists. who have entered this outstanding stage. “Music is universal and describes different realities,” they clarify. Meanwhile, MP Joanna Pérez from the center-right party in the Chilean Congress presented an initiative to ban such “apologies” for criminal activity in public spaces and using state resources.
The statement released by the Viña del Mar Song Festival.
They were not the only public statements that fanned the flames of controversy. On the same Thursday, a senior member of Gabriel Boric's government, the country's Interior Minister Carolina Tohá, said that the matter concerns her and that the matter goes beyond the festival. “It should be an issue of concern and discussion in Chilean society so that we too know what we are hearing. When you hear that there is an awareness of the message that exists and that it does not promote these kinds of values or these kinds of views about society.”
The television channel TVN – a state broadcaster involved in the organization and broadcast of the festival – distanced itself in a statement from the comments of its CEO Francisco Vidal, who had only said on Thursday that he was in talks with the CEO Alfredo Ramírez, “to carefully check the presence of the Mexican singer”. In its official positioning, TVN says: “The definition of the participants of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival is the responsibility of a commission composed of the municipality of Viña del Mar, Channel 13 and TVN. “The National Television Directorate of Chile has no influence on the selection of artists included in the program of the musical event.”
Alberto Mayol, author of the column that triggered the chain of reactions, said in an interview with EL PAÍS that if his text had the effect, it was due to the current scenario that Chile is experiencing a serious security crisis, with an increase in violent crimes such as Homicides with firearms. “The fact that the matter escalated to such an extent is not because the column is extraordinary, nor because the audience that regularly reads me is gigantic, but because it touched exactly the most sensitive fibers. It created the feeling that we need to seriously discuss this issue, at least at the political level, and not remain inactive,” he says.
Regarding the positions of some of those involved – the statements of TVN, those of the festival itself and the lack of a response from the municipality of Viña del Mar – the sociologist assures that in reality no one takes responsibility for giving reasonable answers to society: “In “The statement from the festival organization, in which all the affiliated companies that are not the organizers appear, no one speaks out, no one explains, no one confronts the press and no one takes responsibility.” This compilation by the government was the one that showed us that money not everything is. I was there, we addressed it systematically. Politicians are so confused by this kind of phenomenon that they end up confirming it. [a Peso Pluma] even without anyone taking responsibility,” he says.
The dangerous line of censorship
For Mayol, it's not about censorship, which he speaks out against, but about “something simpler”: “The Chilean state spends millions and millions of dollars every day to control the drug trade, mostly unsuccessfully. If the state itself provides public resources to promote the drug culture, isn't it doing exactly the opposite of its mandate? That’s the absurdity,” he says.
Javiera Tapia is a Chilean journalist specializing in music and feminism in the media. She is the author of one of the columns created in various places in Chile to delve deeper into the subject and respond to Mayol's opinions. In a text published this Thursday in the online music magazine POTQ entitled “The rejection of the presence of Peso Pluma in Viña del Mar: the symbolic and the earthly”, the journalist brings to the table, among other nuances, the fact that “what matters “is what is visible” and that the discussion does not focus on the way in which the drug culture in Chile, fueled by great social inequalities, local conflicts and also by the media's control, has slowly crept in has been everyday life for several years.
“There is something that Alberto Mayol misses in his column, and that is actually a topic that seems to me much more productive and interesting; the ownership and organization of the Viña Festival. He questions why the participation of an artist with ties to narco culture should be financed with public money. And he questions TVN and the municipality of Viña del Mar. But there is one very important element he misses in the equation that changes everything. In summary, the festival works as follows: The municipality of Viña tenders the broadcast and organization, which this year will again be taken over by Channel 13 and TVN. However, the entire production and artistic implementation is the responsibility of a private company: Bizarro, with Alfredo Alonso and Daniel Merino at the helm. “It strikes me that no one has pointed this out in the entire debate,” Tapia says in his text.
Alberto Mayol assures that this is a case that shows all the mistakes that political systems can make, assuring: “I don't think it should be censored, I don't think Peso Pluma can't go to Chile and sing, what.” I say: “With public funds you can’t sing at public events because the state is promoting something it’s trying to fight.”
Finally, the sociologist tells the anecdote of how a Chilean congressman told him the reactions that reading his column evoked in him and the surprise he felt when he asked his ten-year-old son if he knew the Mexican singer: “When he asked When he told him that he made peso pluma, the boy replied: “He sings Mexican corridos and works for the Sinaloa cartel.” The child thinks this is something normal. “If we pretend nothing happened, it can’t be,” he concludes.
Subscribe here Subscribe to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the important information on current events in this country