1998:
Chihuahua. The state’s human rights representative calls for a ban on radio play of narcocorridos, but without any success.

Michoacan: Arturo Herrera, president of the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry (CIRT, for Cámara de la Industria de Radio y Televisión) of Michoacan, proposes an agreement “like those in Sinaloa and Baja California,” in which radio broadcasters would voluntarily cease playing narco songs. He says, “We are enemies of censorship. This is about getting the media themselves to stop broadcasting this music.”

2001:

Sinaloa, 3/2. The state’s CIRT announces a “voluntary” ban on broadcast of narcocorridos. Governor Juan S. Millán shortly told the press that "There has been a lack of open participation in public safety on the part of the broadcast media,” and that this ban would help to contribute to a culture of legality “and to remove the stigma from Sinaloa of being the cradle of the drug traffic.”

Sinaloa, 3/11. Citing the successful censorship of narcocorridos, the State Prosecutor announces plans to prohibit the performance of such songs at live concerts.

Tijuana, BC, 3/14. State representative Catalino Zavala, of the PRD, proposes regulations controlling the broadcast of narcocorridos on radio and television.

Tijuana, 3/15. Representatives of the radio programmers agree that it might be good to censor this music if it is genuinely harming young people. They note, however, that songs like Los Tucanes’ “Mis Tres Animales” talk about drugs only in coded language, and thus can only affect people who already are familiar enough with the drug scene to understand this code.

National, 3/22. Senator Yolanda Gonzalez Hernandez of the PRI argues that by telling stories of youths escaping a hard life in the mountains and becoming rich, narcocorridos promote the criminal life. She points out that the state governments of Sinaloa and Baja California have already made arrangements to keep these songs off the radio, and argues that the same should be done on a national level. She says, “Though we are absolutely convinced of the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, guaranteed by the sixth and seventh articles of our constitution, we also firmly believe that this freedom of ideas has certain limits in the case of attacks on morals, the rights of third parties, and provocations to crime or distress to the public. . .” Citing existing laws against encouraging criminal acts, she calls for “restrictions on reproduction of certain works, though not impeding their creation.” (Hence, she argues that this is not censorship, since people are welcome to write the songs or make the records. She just does not want them to be allowed on the airwaves.)
Coahuila and Tamaulipas, May. In Saltillo, Coahuila, the deputies of the Local Congress unanimously approved a statement to eliminate narcocorridos from the radio in Coahuila. Deputy Elida Bautista Castañón said, “It is known that man tends to imitate what he sees and hears, so it is logical that a person will act violently if all day long he is seeing scenes of crimes and listening to the adventures of a drug trafficker whose aim is to illegally enrich himself.” Meanwhile, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, members of the city’s Cultural Commision asked the City Hall to take the relevant action to prohibit narcocorridos in the radio and television stations.

Coahuila, 6/20. The state congress calls for measures like those in force in Sinaloa and Baja California.

National, 11/7. Roque Chávez López, president of the Consulting Council of the CIRT declares that "The radio broadcasters of the country want to say no to everything that speaks of violence. That is why we are promoting this initiative [to ban narcocorridos] in the whole country, and there is a great consensus to apply it.” An article in Radio World adds that all the recent developments have followed the creation of the Council on Autoregulacion of the CIRT, and while the government and federal legislators are holding consultations with defferent sectors of society to update the existing legal framework which, for many analists, has been overtaken by current conditions.

National, 12/5. Senator Javier Corral, Senator from Chihuahua and head of the Commission of Comunication and Transport, calls for national restrictions on narcocorridos.

2002:

Baja California, 1/17. State representative Catalino Zavala calls once again for a statewide ban, citing the comments of Senator Yolanda Gonzalez.

Chihuahua, 1/31. The state congress passes a bill sponsored by Oscar Gonzalez Luna, of the PAN, “inviting” radio stations to ban narcocorridos, and promising legal enforcement if stations do not comply. The bill argues that radio, as a national resource, must act in the public interest. He told the BBC that, “from hearing over and over that the criminals are superheros, that they have their hands full of money and lack nothing, by way of records which they hear on the radio, children and young people lose interest in studying, work and family values, lured by easy money, depravity and vice.”

National, 2/08. Los Tucanes de Tijuana support the censorship of narcocorridos in Baja California, and also the stations that have chosen not to play Los Tigres del Norte’s “Crónica del cambio,” a critique of the government of Vicente Fox. Of narcocorridos, the Tucanes’ Mario Quintero says, “They have fallen into vulgar language. There are fictitious corridos, without a foundation, obscene, vulgar and invented. They sell because they are common. So it’s good that they [the authorities] are getting involved in the affair.” On the censorship of the Tigres’ song, he adds, “They prohibited that corrido because they are knocking the elected president. If I were Fox and they were knocking me and making me look bad, I would stop them.”

Baja California, 2/27. The state legislature votes to call for a national ban on narcocorridos. The voting is 18 in favor, 2 opposed, with 1 abstension.

National, 3/9. Los Tigres del Norte announce that they have had to drop plans to release a single of their new corrido, “Cronica de un Cambio,” which is critical of the administration of President Fox, because the main national radio chains have said they will not play it. (Click here for lyrics to this song, in Spanish and English.) Jorge Hernandez, the group’s leader, recalls that their corrido “El Gato Felix,” which celebrated a crusading reporter who was assassinated while investigating corruption in Tijuana, had been banned in Baja California in the late 1980s.

Michoacan, 5/13. Senator Antonio Soto says that the national government has shows a “preoccupying timidity,” and calls on the Secretary of Governance to do its job and carry out the ban proposed by Yolanda Gonzalez.

Michoacan, 5/14. Arturo Herrera, president of the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry of Michoacan, who proposed a state ban in 1998, announces that at that time “some colleagues argued that [such songs] were good business, people like them, and banning them was an assault on freedom of expression,” but that now the climate is more propitious for such action.

National, 5/28. Subsecretary Jorge Teherán of Governanance responds to calls for a national ban of narcocorridos. He says that, while the right to freedom of expression makes it impossible to prohibit narcocorridos, “reality” shows, or talk shows on the Jerry Springer model, it should be possible to rate such songs and programs, and to regulate the hours of their transmission, in order to protect young listeners and viewers.

Tijuana, Baja California, 7/18. The state government signs an agreement with the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry, instituting a “voluntarily” ban on radio play of narcocorridos. Casio Carlos Narvaez, of the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry, calls on stations in the United States to follow suit, saying that otherwise the competition may force Tijuana stations to start playing the songs again.

National, 8/14, Asked about the censorship of the Tigres, Julio Preciado says: “Those are "chin.....ras", what they say in some songs are truths, something that I assure you, I am not a supporter of narcocorridos, in the end music is communication, I don’t see the point in censoring a song or two or however many, in the end if you don’t play it, in the media it gives them publicity and people have more reason to go buy the disc, these situations are actually good for the groups that play that type of music, because good or bad in that way they sell more records.”

Monterrey, Nueva Leon, 10/9. The state congress votes to prohibit radio stations from playing narcocorridos. This is news, since up until now Nueva Leon did not bother with such matters, and the local radio stations play many corridos.

USA and Mexico, 11/8. Los Tigres del Norte’s “La Reina del Sur,” a narcocorrido based on the best-selling novel by the Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte, carries the album of the same name to the number one spot in the Billboard Magazine Latin chart. In Mexico, it receives the same censorship as all narcocorridos, despite its respectable literary roots, and the Tigres hurry out a second single “En que fallé,” to get radio play in the states where a ban is in effect

Guanajuato, 11/28. Luis de Alba, the new delegate of the CNIRT, the National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry, proposes an agreement of “autoregulation,” not to broadcast narcocorridos in the state of Guanajuato. “It is not that this would be censorship, but rather that simply we don’t want to be yellow journalists or recommend an action or a character that is doing harm and not good.” He added that the idea is that “narcocorridos will not be played as an ethical action, and not by a coercive mechanism. It will be the morals of each empresario that determine if he programs these stories of criminals or not.” For his part, governor Juan Carlos Romero Hicks said that citizens should be free to choose for themselves: "We live in a country of freedoms and whoever wants to buy this music is at full liberty to do so. For my own taste, I don’t share the affinity for this kind of music, but there will be people who do want to buy it." In any case, local stations have already removed from their playlists drug corridos by Los Tucanes de Tijuana, los Tigres del Norte, los Cardenales de Nuevo León, and other popular groups.