Mexico's school libraries are stocking a book that includes the lyrics of narcocorridos -- folk songs that glorify drug traffickers -- causing a storm of criticism in a country where the drug market and its violence have become part of life in thousands of communities.
Opposition activists are livid that the administration of President Vicente Fox, which has declared a "war on all fronts" against drug gangs, ordered tens of thousands of copies of the book Cien Corridos: Alma de la Cancion Mexicana (100 Corridos: The Soul of Mexican Song) for grade-school libraries.
The book, printed by a private publishing company but bought in bulk by the government, contains lyrics for songs like The Red Car Gang, which describes Mexican cocaine smugglers shooting it out with Texas Rangers:
"They say they came from the south/In a red car/Carrying 100 kilos of cocaine/bound for Chicago ... "
Another song describes female drug traffickers who poisoned police with opium to protect a drug shipment, then praises "The Lord of the Skies," the nickname for the deceased drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes:
"They caught him alive/but they couldn't pin anything on him/ now they can display him dead/on trumped-up charges ... "
Experts say the corrido is Mexico's national song form. Born along with the country's independence in the 1820s, it reached its peak during the 1910-1917 Revolution. Narcocorridos didn't start becoming popular until the 1970s and 1980s.
Legislators say the books have no place in Mexican schools and have scheduled hearings.
"It's very bad to put books like this into the hands of children because they portray drug lords as heroes," said Salvador Martinez, who heads the education committee of the lower house of Congress.
"That's bad, because we have a problem in this country where drug traffickers sometimes pave a town's road, build its school or hospital, and thus have a much better reputation among some people than the police. We have to work against that."
The US-driven drug market has woven its way into the life of thousands of Mexican communities, where narcotics have been a source of otherwise scarce money and of power.
In addition, Mexico has a growing domestic consumption problem -- possibly aggravated by the increasing difficulty of smuggling drugs over the US border -- and concern about drug sales have led officials to routinely search students at some schools.
The sheer bulk of candidate books for libraries -- and the fact that narcocorridos account for only a few of the corridos in the book -- apparently allowed the narcotics issue to be overlooked.
Education Department officials say the volume is merely secondary reading material, purchased as part of an effort to put as many as 30 million books in school libraries across the country, while supporting Mexican publishers.
More than 13,000 titles were submitted by local book distributors as candidates for the plan.
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