Mexico City, Dec 2 (EFE).- Mexican singer Zayda Peña Arjona was murdered by a hitman in a hospital in the northern city of Matamoros, where she was being treated for a gunshot wound she sustained in an attack a few hours earlier, official sources confirmed Sunday.

The 28-year-old performer, the vocalist for the group Zayda y Los Culpables, died after being attacked for the second time early on Saturday after being admitted to Alfredo Pumarejo hospital in the border city in Tamaulipas state, police told Efe.

The previous day, Friday, Peña - one of whose hits was "Tiro de gracia" (Execution shot), was wounded in an attack carried out at the Motel Monaco, in Matamoros.

In the first attack, two other people were killed who were identified as Ana Bertha González, a friend of the singer, and Leonardo Sanchez, a motel employee, while the singer herself was hit by one bullet in the back.

However, as Peña was recovering in the medical center, an assassin managed to get by hospital security and shot her in the face at least twice, killing her, after which he fled.

In recent years in Mexico, several stars of the so-called "musica grupera" have been murdered. The Mexican musical genre has many fans among the country's various drug cartels and mixes instruments such as the base, drums, the accordion, synthesizers and electric guitars.

The lyrics of songs in the genre usually deal with drug trafficking, smuggling, crime, love and death.

Among the most notable cases have been those of Trigo Figueroa, the son of Joan Sebastian, who was murdered execution style in August 2006 at the end of one of his father's concerts in Hidalgo County in Texas.

In addition, in November 2006, 27-year-old Valentin Elizalde, known as "El Gallo de Oro" (The Golden Rooster), was shot to death at a festival in the northern city of Reynosa, near the U.S. border. EFE

jdl-jd/bp