Morelia, Mexico, Jun 4 (EFE).- Legislators of the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan have awarded a medal to the traditional music group “Jimenez Brothers and their Harp” which plays “narcocorridos” (narcotics + the traditional Mexican ballads known as “corridos”) that glorify drug traffickers.

At a solemn session held Friday night at the Legislative Palace of Morelia, capital of Michoacan, the 73rd Legislature presented the group with the Melchor Ocampo Medal, the state’s highest honor named after its hero at the time of the 19th century Reform.

Gov. Silvano Aureoles Conejo was on hand as a special guest for the awarding of the prize to the nine members of the group whose career spans 43 years and 26 albums of traditional music.

The group was nominated for the honor by lawmaker Raymundo Arreola Ortega of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, also the party of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Among the group’s greatest hits are “Traficantes Michoacanos,” “El Grande de Michoacan,” “Ivan Archivaldo Guzman” and “Mafias Michoacanas,” among others that extol the exploits of Michoacan drug traffickers crossing the border into the United States.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzman is the son of notorious drug lord Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzman.

The Melchor Ocampo Medal was created in 1999 and is awarded annually to individuals and institutions “distinguished for their outstanding service to the Mexican Republic or to the state of Michoacan.”

Previously honored were the Michoacan University of San Nicolas de Hidalgo, historians, artists of international standing and former governors.

Among those with hopes of receiving the medal are Michoacan astronaut Jose Hernandez, who has been on a NASA space mission, as well as singer-songwriter Marco Antonio “El Buki” Solis, and renowned sculptor Jose Luis Padilla Retana. EFE