From Iztapalapa, helped by the world: The Blue Angels recover their instruments stolen in Puebla

Elías Mejía Avante, vocalist and leader of the Mexican cumbia group Los Ángeles Azules , confirmed this Wednesday that the equipment that was violently stolen from them last Friday has been located by authorities in a cornfield in the city of San Martín Texmelucan de Labastida, Puebla, a municipality that borders Tlaxcala. "We have to go and verify ownership, make sure everything is complete, and see if my bass is there," Mejía said during Ciro Gómez Leyva's radio newscast .

On Monday, the group made the assault public through a statement posted on social media, reporting that the van in which they were transporting their instruments, following a performance in Tabasco , was intercepted by a fake checkpoint at kilometer 61 of the Mexico-Puebla highway, heading toward Mexico City. The announcement closes with a call to state and federal authorities "to take urgent measures and guarantee safe passage on our highways."

President Claudia Sheinbaum was questioned that same day during her morning press conference regarding the group's statement. Sheinbaum said she had asked Hernán Cortés Hernández, a major general in the General Staff, to contact a representative or member of Los Ángeles Azules to find out what happened and how the robbery unfolded, with the goal of carrying out preventive and follow-up actions.

The National Guard found the abandoned, empty van on Sunday on the Mexico-Puebla Highway, in the same town where they found the instruments on Wednesday.

Mejía Avante explained during the Gómez Leyva show that he received a call from the person in charge of the transport on Friday night. Mejía was asleep. He was informed that the van, along with the driver, co-pilot, and stereo, had been hijacked . “It hit me like a shock.” He adds that during the call, they explained that the two people had been released and called from a house. “They told me they were going to check on them, but the van hadn't appeared. What a scare,” the musician concludes.

Both the vehicle and the instruments are insured, but the musician is most interested in recovering his bass. “It's unique.” Mejía confessed that he had the instrument made after undergoing surgery on both hands. “I had trigger fingers. They got stuck, and I couldn't play anymore.” What he did was cut the handle of the device to make it shorter and allow the fingers to move faster. “I'm doing some odd jobs to get it back,” he joked. According to Proceso, the equipment is valued at eight million pesos (more than $410,000).

This Tuesday, prior to the discovery of the instruments, the cumbia band announced a short tour of four European cities during September of this year. The first performances will be in Zaragoza and Madrid , on Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th, respectively; they will then travel to Berlin on Monday the 8th and close out their tour in London on Wednesday the 10th.

Los Ángeles Azules, a group formed by the Mejía Avante family in the 1970s, is one of the flagship acts of the Mexican capital. Originally from Iztapalapa , one of the areas hardest hit by poverty and inequality in Mexico City, they decided to start playing in sonideros, mobile nightclubs, to help make ends meet. “It wasn't a love of music, it was necessity,” said percussionist Hilario Mejía on the program La historia atrás del mito (The Story Behind the Myth), broadcast on TV Azteca. “We lived in a pure, earthy atmosphere.”

In 1982, they signed a contract with Discos Dancing and released their debut album, Ritmo... Alegría... Sabor!, which sold a million copies. Almost a decade later, they released what became the group's most successful song, Cómo te voy a olvidar (How I'm Going to Forget You), and a few years later, El listón de tu pelo (The List of Your Hair) topped the Billboard charts for six months.

Collaborations with artists such as Miguel Bosé, Julieta Venegas , Lila Downs and Natalia Lafourcade, to name a few, have made the cumbia music of Los Ángeles Azules reach a different audience and younger generations.