The Day of the Dead on 2 November is a tradition observed across Latin America, honouring deceased loved ones and celebrating their lives. This year, Freemuse and Cartel Urbano join the celebration as an act of resistance and a testament to memory serving artistic freedom. From Gaza to Tehran to Reynosa, the work itself became evidence. With this roll, Freemuse records artists and culture workers lost between 2 November 2024 and 1 November 2025, whether targeted in war, caught in politics, or claimed by crime. Day of the Dead is about the living refusing to forget. The list below is not exhaustive, but it remembers those lost and traces patterns of risk for artists around the globe.
We begin in Gaza, where their stories remind us what it means to create under siege, during war, and genocide. Walaa Jumaa al-Afranj’s precise calligraphy, Dina Zaurub’s portraits, and Durgham Qreiqeh’s neighbourhood workshops tried to keep a record even as record-keepers disappeared. Killed together in an airstrike, Amna al-Salmi and Ismail Abu Hatab used their craft to express resilience and hope. Across the border, twelve days of Israeli airstrikes in Iran in June reached homes and streets. The strikes claimed the poet Parnia Abbasi, the painter Mansoureh Alikhani, the designer Saleh Bayrami, and the artist and teacher Mehrangiz Imanpour, who died from the blast at Evin Prison. In Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and farther afield, the wars drag on with little notice, and artists carry on in near silence.
Cartel violence scarred Mexico’s stages and roads. Five members of Grupo Fugitivo were abducted and murdered, and Julio Eusebio Labra was shot mid-song. Peru mourned a cumbia singer murdered as she travelled on a tour bus; Colombia grieved a vocalist and two young dancers, then two more across the border. In the DRC, two rappers were killed in Goma; in Russia, the anti-war musician Vadim Stroykin died in a “fall”. From another dictatorship, a name returned: Tenório Jr., a musician from Brazil, identified after nearly fifty years.
NOVEMBER 2024
PERU – Thalía Manrique Castillo – Cumbia singer; murdered when unknown individuals intercepted the bus in which she was traveling with her orchestra.
DECEMBER 2024
GAZA – Walaa Jumaa al-Afranj – Artist/novelist/calligrapher; killed on 25 December in an Israeli airstrike on her home in Nuseirat.
JANUARY 2025
COLOMBIA – Dávinson Gaviria – Popular-musician and singer; killed on 2 January after finishing a private concert in rural Balboa, Cauca. Armed men opened fire as he was leaving the venue.
COLOMBIA – Javier Alejandro Valencia (“Leandro”) and Juan David Ramírez Rodríguez – Young dancers and community leaders; found dead on 20 January after being reported missing. The killings, one involving torture, were widely condemned by national and international bodies.
RUSSIA – Vadim Stroykin – Singer-songwriter and guitar tutor; anti-war activist. Died on 5 February after falling from his St. Petersburg apartment during a police search. Authorities claimed suicide; friends disputed this as suspicious.
FEBRUARY 2025
DRC – Freddy Mukuza – Rapper; he was shot dead in Goma, on 22 February, during M23’s occupation.
DRC – Delphin Katembo Vinywasiki (Delcat Idengo) – Singer/rapper; he was killed on 13–14 February in Goma, described by the culture ministry as an assassination while filming a music video.
MARCH 2025
GAZA – Durgham Qreiqeh (aka Dorgham Quraiqi/Qreiqea) – Visual artist and community arts worker; he was killed on 18 March in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Shuja’iyya, Gaza City. His wife and brothers also died.
PERU – Paul Flores – Lead singer of Armonía 10; he was shot dead 16 March when gunmen attacked the band’s bus as they were returning from a performance.
APRIL 2025
GAZA – Dina Khaled Zaurub – Portrait artist; she was killed 12 April in an Israeli airstrike on a displaced-persons camp west of Khan Younis. Known for charcoal/graphite portraits memorialising victims.
MAY 2025
MEXICO – Grupo Fugitivo (Francisco Xavier Vázquez Osorio; Nemesio Antonio Durán Rodríguez; Víctor Manuel Garza Cervantes; José Francisco Morales Martínez; Livan (Liván) Edyberto Solís de la Rosa) – Abducted and murdered late May near Reynosa, Tamaulipas, after being hired for a performance. Authorities later announced multiple arrests tied to a Gulf Cartel faction.
GAZA – Ibtisam Nassar – Retired actress; killed on 20 May in an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat. A day earlier, she had posted a Facebook eulogy for her husband and two children, killed in a prior strike.
SOUTH AFRICA – Sqiniseko Mvelase – Maskandi music reviewer; killed on 29 May while livestreaming from his home. His death was linked to Maskandi music rivalries after prior threats over alleged bias.
JUNE 2025
MEXICO – Julio Eusebio Labra – Lead singer, Conquistadores de la Sierra; he was shot dead on stage on 1 June at El Huamuchilito, Emiliano Zapata (Morelos).
IRAN – Parnia (Parniya) Abbasi – Poet; killed between 12–13 June with her family in an Israeli airstrike on a residential block in Tehran (Sattarkhan).
IRAN – Mansoureh Alikhani – Painter; she was killed on 14 June, in Tehran during Israeli strikes.
IRAN– Saleh Bayrami – Graphic designer; killed on 15 June, in an Israeli airstrike while he was driving through Quds Square in the Tajrish neighbourhood in northern Tehran.
IRAN – Mehrangiz Imanpour – Artist and painting instructor; she was killed on 24 June by the blast shockwave from the Evin Prison attack in Tehran.
GAZA – Amna al-Salmi (female visual artist); and Ismail Au Hatab (male photographer/filmmaker); killed on 30 June in an airstrike on Al-Baqa café, Gaza City.
JULY 2025
ISRAEL – Awdah Hathaleen – Activist/teacher and contributor to the international award winning documentary No Other Land; he was shot dead on 28 July by an Israeli settler in Umm al-Khair (Occupied West Bank).
SEPTEMBER 2025
COLOMBIA – Bayron Sánchez Salazar (“B-King”, 31) and Jorge Luis Herrera Lemos (“DJ Regio Clown”) – Singers; they were found dead on 17 September in Cocotitlán, State of Mexico, a day after last being seen in Mexico City’s Polanco where they were invited to perform. Prosecutors opened a homicide investigation.
OCTOBER 2025
TÜRKİYE – Hakan Tosun – Journalist and documentary director; attacked on 10 October in Istanbul and died on 13 October from head injuries. Known for covering environmental and social issues. His death is considered suspicious, and the investigation remains unresolved.
After Almost 50 Years, Body of Murdered Musician Finally Identified:
BRAZIL/ARGENTINA – Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Júnior (Tenorinho) – Bossa nova pianist; disappeared 18 Mar 1976 (Buenos Aires). Formally identified in mid-Sept by Argentina’s forensic team via fingerprint match as a victim of the dictatorship; his bullet-ridden body had been buried unidentified in Benavídez.
The Spanish version of “Day of the Dead: Artists Caught Between War and Cartels” is available here.
And see the English version here.
