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2026-08-10 Caribbean-Latin America
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White Sombrero: Why a Blogger with 600,000 Subscribers Was Killed Live on Air
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Olga Kuznetsova
[REGNUM] If lists of the most dangerous professions were created taking into account the realities of Mexico, then working with nuclear waste or working in a mine would clearly be relegated to the background, or even third place. But bloggers, journalists, and musicians would be pushed to the forefront.
In Culiacán, the capital of the state of Sinaloa, well-known blogger César Gastelum was killed while streaming online. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a KFC restaurant, where Gastelum and two other men dressed as delivery men were filming a comedy video. At that moment, two unknown
critics
assailants on a motorcycle pulled up next to them, and the blogger was shot point-blank.
The incident immediately caused an uproar in the local community. The 24-year-old Gastelum is a well-known figure in local circles, with over 600,000 followers on social media.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, as well as the leadership of the state of Sinaloa, implied that drug cartels were behind the blogger's death, but no one named any specific entities. They only vaguely mentioned that Gastelum had made several videos alluding to a certain criminal organization.
The promise of arrests came as little surprise—the Mexican government is currently working through a new round of accusations from the White House, which is again demanding a crackdown on drug traffickers. So, remaining silent or avoiding a special operation in the troubled state is clearly not an option.
At the same time, the Sinaloans are actively saying that those responsible for the massacre of Gastelum have long been known and will soon have a hard time.
FACTION SQUABBLES
The fact is that during his deathbed broadcast, César Gastelum wore a traditional Mexican hat—a white sombrero. In the context of the state of Sinaloa, this is not just an item of clothing: white sombreros are worn by supporters of one faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, the men of drug lord Ismael Zambada García, aka El Mayo.
| Good to know, if you’re going to spend time in that part of the world. |
El Mayo himself is in the United States, where he was recently sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking. But his place has been taken by one of his sons, Ismael Zambada Sicairos, who is now actively fighting another faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Chapitos.
The latter group includes the sons of former cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán Loera. They consider themselves the main heirs of the powerful organized crime group, although they have been forced to live under virtual siege for the past couple of years.
Conflicts and personal differences between the two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have accumulated over the past 30 years. El Mayo's men were accused of murdering one of the Los Chapitos brothers and of working for US intelligence agencies, and in 2024, Guzmán Loera's sons kidnapped and handed over El Mayo, the clan's patriarch, to US authorities.
Furthermore, the factions are squabbling over lucrative drug trafficking routes, fentanyl labs, and the Chicago drug distribution network. Even without any personal grudges, all of this would have been grounds for a bloody war, but in the end, everything came together at once.
Since 2024, the two sides have taken active action, and now El Mayo's men are winning—they have even seized the ancestral lands of Los Chapitos in Badiraguato and won over most of the cartel's financial operators.
However, the "chapitos" have not become less deadly and regularly carry out mass murders of their enemies' supporters: they hang them from bridges and lampposts, cut off their heads, and leave the remains of their bodies in black garbage bags on the main streets.
And they make a "mark" everywhere, leaving a white sombrero next to the corpse or on its head. They show that they will kill only those they consider their enemies.
| Pretty thoughtful, for evil drug lord types… |
The El Mayo gang acts similarly, except that at crime scenes they leave not hats, but boxes of pizza, the symbol of Los Chapitos (at one time, the brothers used the family's gangster brand, selling this Italian dish).
As for ordinary residents of Sinaloa, they're forced to adapt to the circumstances. Of course, they haven't stopped eating pizza, but they try to avoid wearing sombreros, even as a joke, for fear of getting in trouble.
| Like wearing the wrong colour for the local gangs in an inner city high school. |
It's doubtful that Cesar Gastelum hasn't heard anything about the symbolism of his headdress.
DANGEROUS CONTENT
Social media users are writing that Gastelum's videos supporting El Mayo's men only appeared in the last few months. Prior to this, he was considered connected to the entourage of Los Chapitos' security chief, Nestor Isidro Pérez Salas.
Additionally, Gastelum was a close friend of video blogger Gordo Peruchi, who was murdered in 2024 for creating content glorifying Los Chapitos.
It's unclear what happened in Cesar's life, but his loyalties shifted quite abruptly. In addition to his signature hat, he also traveled to areas controlled by the El Mayo faction, sporting caps and T-shirts with the number "04" or the MZ monogram.
This type of design is a reference to the 4x1 group, which also works for Sambado Sicairos.
As for Gastelum's killers, they are said to be the men of one of the Los Chapitos operatives, adding that a substantial reward has already been placed on their heads.
There were also more mundane versions of what happened. Rumor has it that while working for the cartels, Cesar became overconfident and began an affair with the wife of a crime boss, who was unable to overcome the pangs of jealousy.
| Predictable. Affairs with the married are risky in general, more so when the spouse is professionally violent |
And some even claim that Gastelum did indeed have numerous affairs, but not with women—and members of both factions would not forgive such a “public representative” of an organization with very conservative foundations.
LIVING AND DEAD SYMBOLS OF CARTELS
Since El Mayo's arrest in 2024, at least eight bloggers have been killed in the Sinaloa cartel's territory alone—which includes both the state of the same name and the border city of Tijuana.
The year 2025 proved particularly fruitful for this type of violence: in January, two influencers were murdered simultaneously—fitness trainer Adal Peña and video content creator Justin Paul. Both were kidnapped and tortured before their deaths.
In March, Victor Manuel, who ran a biker shop, and Gail Castro were killed; in August, Camilo Ochoa, a former Sinaloa cartel gunman who had decided to change his line of work, passed away ; and in November, El Jerry passed away, avenged for wearing a bulletproof vest with El Mayo insignia.
But in 2026, the focus shifted slightly: at the end of July, unknown assailants on motorcycles shot and killed 72-year-old singer Sergio Padilla in Edomex, and a couple of days later, in Jalisco, during the filming of a music video, 30-year-old rapper Soldis C4 was killed.
All the deaths are linked in one way or another to crime, as well as to the fact that these citizens supported one cartel or another with their creativity. Mexican law, incidentally, discourages such activities, but loopholes are always found in the form of innocuous symbols (like the white hat).
Musicians are a unique breed—ballads about elusive avengers or heroes who outshine the security forces have been wildly popular for over 100 years, and banning them is practically impossible.
Another question is that there are those who openly praise – or insult – a specific drug lord or sicario.
Besides PR, bloggers are also used in information wars, forced to comment on significant events and attribute all violence in the state to a rival group. Furthermore, influencers are an excellent money laundering tool.
However, few people feel pity for the dead. A popular view locally is that those who support criminal activity in any form don't live long.
This applies especially to symbolic workers, such as influencers and musicians. As public figures, they become easy targets for those who can't reach their own enemies at the moment.
As for responsibility for actions of this kind, one has to wait a long time - and it is possible that the case will first become political.
This is what happened, for example, to Valeria Marquez, who was shot during a live broadcast in 2025. The main customer of the atrocity was believed to be Double R, a member of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
However, in light of the capture in the summer of 2026 of one of the cartel's leadership members, Ramon Ayala Alvarez, the massacre of Marquez—and also of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manso, who was killed in front of everyone on the Day of the Dead—was attributed to him.
Given that the "hot spots" in Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Michoacán are unlikely to be contained in the next few years, the list of undesirable influencers is likely to expand. And even US sanctions won't stop it.
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