Colombian singer Juanes has announced a march in Medellin to protest organized crime, after a rapper was killed, Spanish news agency EFE reported Monday.
The march was organized by the Elite Hip Hop network, a group composed of musical artists from Medellin’s Comuna 13 (Community 13), after rapper Daniel Alejandro Sierra was murdered in that neighborhood.
Sierra, 17, a member of the rap group “Ruta Difusa” was shot in the “Antonio Nariño” neighborhood of west Medellin’s Comuna 13 Saturday night.
“Another ‘pana’ [family member] killed in the Comuna 13 motivated us to mobilize for life! No more!” the rocker wrote on his Twitter page.
Juanes received the Elite Hip Hop network’s invitation to join the march which will take place Tuesday to support, “the rights and human rights of the youth of this city.”
“We do not want more young people killed, we do not want more blood, we do not want more voices silenced,” said Juanes, who has had an ongoing relationship with the urban music movement in Comuna 13 for years.
The singer works with cultural leaders in the neighborhood and participated in a concert held there in October 2010 to mark International Peace Day.
Sierra is the fifth artist killed in Comuna 13 in recent years, which is subject to a bitter dispute over the control of territory by armed gangs.